A split panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit agreed with a district court that a 2009 Oyster Bay ordinance that advocates said was aimed at restricting Latino day laborers is invalid on First Amendment grounds.

Two of the three panelists, Judges Barrington Parker and Jane Restani of the U.S. Court of International Trade, who sat by designation, agreed with an order granting summary judgment for the plaintiffs issued by Judge Denis Hurley for the Eastern District of New York. Hurley found the town's ordinance was overly broad and trampled on commercial free speech.

The passage of the Long Island town's ordinance came in the midst of a larger debate over immigrant labor rights, as predominantly undocumented laborers gathered each morning on a four-block stretch of road to wait for opportunities to do construction and other off-the-books work.