Posted on 12/01/2004 9:01:51 AM PST by Wolfie
MBTA Takes A Hit In Court On Marijuana Ads Case
The MBTA violated the free speech rights of a group that wants to legalize marijuana by refusing to display its advertisements throughout the transit system, a federal appeals court has ruled.
In a decision that came after the T waged an $800,000 court battle, the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals found officials improperly rejected the ads because they disapproved of their message.
``As a taxpayer I would be outraged by . . . what they spent on a losing case,'' said Joe White, executive director of Change the Climate, the group that wanted to run the ads.
T officials argued yesterday that the money was well spent because the agency prevailed in key portions of the ruling that upheld the agency's policies for reviewing and rejecting some advertisements.
``It's expensive . . . but we are preserving our right to control advertisements on the MBTA system in a way that's respectful to the people who use that system,'' MBTA General Manager Michael Mulhern said yesterday.
The court ruling, while slapping the T for its refusal to run the Change the Climate ads, said the agency properly rejected ads from other groups deemed offensive to Christians.
In the case of Change the Climate, which wanted to run a series of three advertisements, the court found the T's refusal was unreasonable and amounted to ``viewpoint discrimination.''
``This suspicion of viewpoint discrimination is deepened by the fact that the MBTA has run a number of ads promoting alcohol that are clearly more appealing to juveniles than the ads here,'' the court said.
WOO-HOO!
Slap those duckspeakers down!
``This suspicion of viewpoint discrimination is deepened by the fact that the MBTA has run a number of ads promoting alcohol..."
So, they think alcohol is as bad, comparatively speaking, yet they want to display their drug information anyway? Hmm...what does that say?
You hear anything yet on that SC case?
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