A newly proposed law in Burlington would allow people to sue anyone who violates a city ordinance, whether it's the ban on urinating in public, littering or letting a dog run loose. City councilors, though, crafted the change with a specific violation in mind. They want to give people the right to sue for damages anyone who defaces public property with hateful stickers or graffiti. The ordinance would also allow people to submit pictures of suspects to police, who could write the tagger a ticket. The 11 councilors who attended last week's meeting gave the ordinance preliminary approval on a unanimous vote; a final vote is scheduled for November 12. Officials say the ordinance simply expands on a right already provided in the city charter, but the measure is concerning to First Amendment attorneys, who say it would open the door to selective enforcement of the city's graffiti ordinance. Applying a so-called "hate crime enhancement" to an expressive activity such as stickering raises free-speech questions, the attorneys said. "It's very likely that someone will sue over this," said Harrison Stark, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont. "That case, I imagine, would raise a number of compelling First Amendment arguments." Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak and city councilors have lauded the proposal as a means of deterring people who have plastered city property with transphobic stickers in recent years. The decals, with messages such as "No one was ever born in the wrong body," make transgender people feel unsafe and unwelcome, officials have said. The stickers began appearing in 2020 on telephone poles, trash bins and even Seven Days newsstands. People regularly report them on the city-run app SeeClickFix, sometimes accusing the alleged perpetrators by name. One person often mentioned is New North End resident Bill Oetjen, an activist who has publicly acknowledged posting anti-trans stickers. In 2022, his sticker spree caught the attention of then-state representative Mulvaney-Stanak, who launched a campaign on GoFundMe to purchase decals with pro-trans messages. She put her stickers up, with permission, in the windows of homes and cafés, she said. It didn't slow Oetjen, and in 2023, the city council passed a resolution condemning the stickers and other transphobic activity. The measure asked a council subcommittee to amend the city's existing graffiti ordinance to stem the "hateful and harmful messages." Seven months later, in October 2023, Burlington police…