Hey, there! Log in / Register

Judge again refuses to force MBTA to run anti-Palestinian ad

For the second time in three months, a federal judge has said the company that manages advertising for the T did nothing to violate the First Amendment in rejecting an ad from a New Hampshire group that compares Palestinians to savages.

Only this time, Judge Nathaniel Gorton signaled he's getting a little sick of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, which sued the T a second time after the T accepted a compromise ad after rejecting its first ad, then rejected the group's last-minute "tweak" to that ad that made it more similar to the original ad. In an order released today, Gorton writes:

Plaintiffs acted in bad faith in submitting the Second Advertisement to the MBTA, waiting for that advertisement to be accepted and then using that acceptance as an excuse to file a second lawsuit against the MBTA rather than accepting its compromise offer to display the Second Advertisement. Such blatant gamesmanship and deliberate confrontation does not warrant the “extraordinary and drastic remedy” of ordering the MBTA to display the Third Advertisement.

In both lawsuits, the group was seeking immediate injunctions to force the T to run the ads, on the grounds that refusing to run them was a violation of its First Amendment rights.

In the first case, Gorton declined to issue the immediate relief because of an earlier MBTA advertising case - involving condom ads - which was decided in the T's favor because it's considered a "non-public forum." But in today's ruling, on the second lawsuit, he said he doesn't even have to consider that issue again, because he has the discretion "to deny equitable relief to a party that has acted in bad faith or with unclean hands."

While the legal wrangling has been going on, the MBTA has been running ads from another group that support Israel by showing a map of the Middle East and pointing out how small Israel is geographically compared to all of its Arab neighbors.

Earlier:
Yes, of course the MBTA is now embroiled in the Middle East conflict, 11/7/13.
Judge says MBTA has right to ban ads that seem to call Palestinians savages , 12/23/13.
Muslim-hating New Hampshire group sues MBTA over ads - again, 2/8/14.

Topics: 
Free tagging: 
AttachmentSize
PDF icon afd-denied.pdf200.09 KB


Ad:


Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!

Comments

OFFS! This sort of asshat behavior by the AFDI is no way to get people to treasure and protect Israel.

OFFS! Get a clue, people.

up
Voting closed 0

I can see it now... he'll have dumb surrogates make stupid campaign posters of Ms Shaheen in a Kaffiyeh looking like a suicide bomber.

It's a natural follow up to his wildly successful Elizabeth Warren in a Lakota Warbonnet poster from some Sullivan Bros family stooges down in Hanson.

(I have the video)

up
Voting closed 0

more in common with small town Alabama than her quaint Massachusetts small town neighbors.

up
Voting closed 0

let them all run the ads they want. "Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a thousand schools of thought contend" as Mao said but didn't really mean.

up
Voting closed 0

services through their fares and taxes will appreciate being subjected to even more visual pollution for the sole purpose of shilling cheezy products (or in this case questionable opinions) that people really don't need. But, private industry is paying for this nonsense, so let's let them waste money and resources that could go to other things that would actually truly benefit society instead.

up
Voting closed 0

It is racist, deceptive and inflammatory, and that is scary. Would you feel ok about paying a fare to ride the T while liooking at an inflammatory ad inciting hatred of YOUR ethnic group?

up
Voting closed 0

Where does the ad mention Palestinians?

up
Voting closed 0

The MBTA is still letting them run a pretty stupid ad- Pam Geller and the FREEDOMS crew just tried to change it [to something even dumber] after both parties agreed on what it would say. They can still post the compromise version (they're probably _entitled_ to post it, really) and in doing so defend our precious freedoms.

I think it's great. I don't recall seeing too many political ads on the T- probably because you'd have to be pretty fucking stupid get your political views from a subway ad written in Geller's signature semicoherent furious all-caps youtube comment hatemuslins writing style- but it'll be nice to see the T spend money on things besides their counsel. Also i bet people are going to write awful hilarious things about pam geller on them.

up
Voting closed 0