Judge rejects Port Authority’s stay request in BLM masks case

A federal judge on Wednesday denied a request by Port Authority of Allegheny County to stay his decision allowing authority employees to wear Black Lives Matter masks while on the job.

In January, U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan found a policy Port Authority implemented last summer, which banned political speech by employees while at work, was “arbitrary and overbroad” and that it infringed on the employees’ First Amendment rights.

The Port Authority quickly filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit and asked Judge Ranjan to stay his order, which would have prevented employees from wearing the masks while the appeal is pending.

Judge Ranjan said in his opinion Wednesday, however, that granting the stay would be “an unacceptable dereliction of [his] judicial duty, and cause substantial harm to individual employees’ First Amendment rights.”

Although Port Authority argued in its request for a stay that employees wearing the masks would potentially cause disruption of duty, Judge Ranjan said no evidence of disruptions was presented.

“This lack of any actual or imminent disruption, coupled with the Port Authority’s continued failure to present other evidence that such disruption is likely to occur in the future, demonstrates that there is no basis for the Port Authority’s contention that it will experience meaningful disruption if the court’s injunction is not stayed,” Judge Ranjan said. “There was no evidence of even a single complaint received from the bus-riding public about a driver wearing a mask or other uniform adornment.”