After nearly four hours of live testimony and oral argument today in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Federal Judge Paul A. Engelmayer appears likely to rule in the American Freedom Law Center’s favor on a request for a preliminary injunction to halt the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (MTA) restriction on an anti-jihad bus advertisement. (See video update below.)
The decision, expected within 30 days, would be a free speech victory for AFLC clients Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer, and the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI). Their advertisement, which was offered as a direct response to an anti-Israel advertisement that was displayed on MTA property by a pro-Palestine group, states, “In Any War Between the Civilized Man and the Savage, Support the Civilized Man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad.” (See image below.)
Although MTA approved the anti-Israel advertisement, which portrayed the Palestinians as being on the side of “peace and justice,” MTA rejected AFDI’s advertisement, claiming that it violated its policy against displaying “images or information that demean an individual or group of individuals on account of race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, gender, age, disability or sexual orientation.”
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