The Supreme Court declined Monday to consider an appeal from anti-Islam activist Pamela Geller over advertisements depicting the Prophet Muhammad that were rejected by D.C.’s public transit.
Geller and her organization, the American Freedom Defense Initiative, argued the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority violated their free speech rights when it refused to post the ads in 2015. The cartoon featured a depiction of the Project Muhammad — which Islam forbids — holding a sword and saying, “You can’t draw me,” with the words “Support Free Speech” across the top.
The organization blocked the ads, intended for WMATA’s buses and dioramas, under new advertising guidelines passed just days after submission that barred issue-oriented displays.
Geller’s organization argued the restrictions are content- and viewpoint-based, in violation of the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech.
The group accused WMATA of adopting the advertising guidelines “to silence the viewpoint” it expressed, but lost an initial lawsuit in federal court in Washington as well as an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The federal appeals court said the advertising space was a nonpublic forum and rejected Geller’s claim that rejection of the ads was discrimination.
