Derailing Speech
The MTA’s war on free speech keeps running into awkward complications.
On Wednesday, the agency declared that more than 1,200 Amalgamated Bank posters must come down from buses and subway stations because they violate the MTA ban on “ads of a political nature.”
That was slow on the uptake: The posters had been up for three weeks. And the “political” part was obvious. The posters read:
“Checking, savings and lending our support to #RaiseTheWage.
“Raising the minimum wage lifts up all New Yorkers. Join the bank that fights for working families.”
That clearly flies in the face of the nopolitics policy the MTA imposed this spring after a judge tossed out its effort to reject only “offensive” ads.
The agency didn’t want to run stridently antijihadist messages from conservative activist Pam Geller. But the courts ruled (correctly) that this unconstitutionally suppressed free speech.
So, to stay Gellerfree, the MTA invented its “viewpoint neutral” ban on all politics. Yet even that turned out to have holes. The agency stuck to the plan by rejecting ads to promote a satirical film. A judge slapped that down as “arbitrary” and “unreasonable.”
Yet the ads did have a clear political message. For example, one read “Those Terrorists Are All Nutjobs” — with “nutjobs” written in graffitistyle over a crossedoff “Muslim” and the comment “more accurate.”
It’s a safe bet that Pam Geller is already at work on some “funny” ads that she can run under the “comedy” exception. What about the bank ads? Amalgamated has been prounion since its founding in 1923 by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. The posters fit its longtime strategy of how to attract more customers and so improve its business. In short, they’re both political and commercial speech.
Even if no judge says otherwise, this is the second fail in two weeks for the MTA’s “viewpointneutral” policy.
Added irony: The whole thing started as an effort to shut down a rightwing voice, yet the policy has now twice rejected leftwing messages.
The MTA should give up on restricting content. Let all sides pay to get their messages out — the agency needs the money, anyway.