For now, Joseph Rudolph can display a sign supporting Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential run on his front lawn in South Park. Whether it will be allowed to stay there will be decided in U.S. District Court.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania filed a lawsuit on Dr. Rudolph’s behalf yesterday in the Western District of Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh, challenging a section of South Park’s code that restricts the display of political signs in the township to 30 days before an election. That would mean Dr. Rudolph couldn’t put up his sign until March 23, in advance of Pennsylvania’s April 22 primaries.

“Freedom of speech applies all year round,” said Witold “Vic” Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, “not just 30 days before an election.”