A group opposed to radical Islam - and some say Muslims, in general – somehow won an injunction to run anti-jihad ads on public buses in Michigan.
U.S. District Judge Denise Hood of Detroit said the local transportation authority's efforts to block the ads constituted a First Amendment violation.
American Freedom Defense Initiative – one of the main opponents of the mosque build in New York City – was the party that ran the ads and subsequently brought suit against the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART), which subsidizes its public transportation service in four Michigan counties through advertisements.
Claiming that the ban was arbitrary and in violation of its constitutional rights, AFDI argued its original complaint that "the treason being committed by national, state, and local government officials, the mainstream media, and others in their capitulation to the global jihad and Islamic supremacism, the ever-encroaching and unconstitutional power of the federal government, and the rapidly moving attempts to impose socialism and Marxism upon the American people."
SMART countered that – and I would agree – the ads are political, anti-Islamic and happen to be in conflict with its contract with CBS Outdoor, SMART's advertising agent. SMART’s stance is that it cannot accept political advertisements that are "likely to hold up to scorn and ridicule of a group of persons.”
The AFDI countered with the fact that SMART had previously run an atheist group's ad that said: "Don't believe in God? You're not alone." To me, this is far less political than an anti-jihad ad.
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