skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Saturday, April 27, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Louisiana teachers' union concerned about educators' future; Supreme Court hears arguments in Trump immunity case; court issues restraining order against fracking waste-storage facility; landmark NE agreement takes a proactive approach to CO2 pipeline risks.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Speaker Johnson accuses demonstrating students of getting support from Hamas. TikTok says it'll challenge the ban. And the Supreme Court dives into the gray area between abortion and pregnancy healthcare, and into former President Trump's broad immunity claims.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The urban-rural death divide is widening for working-age Americans, many home internet connections established for rural students during COVID have been broken, and a new federal rule aims to put the "public" back in public lands.

SEPTA Sued for Banning Ads About Housing Discrimination

play audio
Play

Friday, May 4, 2018   

PHILADELPHIA – Banning ads about controversial issues is a violation of free-speech rights – that's the claim of a lawsuit filed against the nation's sixth-largest public transit system.

The Center for Investigative Reporting has compiled data showing racial disparities in home mortgage lending in 61 American cities, including Philadelphia. But when it sought to highlight the results with an ad campaign, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority refused to display the ads on its trains and buses.

Molly Tack-Hooper, staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, says SEPTA's policies banning ads on political and controversial social issues turn the First Amendment on its head.

"Political speech and public debate get the most constitutional protection,” says Tack-Hooper. “But SEPTA's policy essentially says the more important the speech, the less SEPTA wants it on its subways and buses."

She says in letters exchanged with the Center for Investigative Reporting, SEPTA explained its policy as an attempt to keep out hate speech.

But Tack-Hooper points out that the courts already have told the authority it could not ban an anti-Muslim ad campaign sponsored by a group called the American Freedom Defense Initiative.

"Of course, even those AFDI ads, which I think most SEPTA riders would probably agree are racist and gross, didn't bring the trains to a grinding halt,” says Tack-Hooper. “They didn't have much of an effect at all on the operation of the transit system."

She notes that the City of Philadelphia, which controls ad space on city bus shelters, has agreed to display the CIR ads. Tack-Hooper adds that the Transportation Authority has other ways to respond to hate speech in advertising that are far less extreme than banning protected speech.

"For example, SEPTA could use its ad space to put up its own message of tolerance and disavow groups like AFDI that might advertise on SEPTA,” says Tack-Hooper.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
The United Nations experts also expressed concern over a Chemours application to expand PFAS production in North Carolina. (Adobe Stock)

play sound

United Nations experts are raising concerns about chemical giants DuPont and Chemours, saying they've violated human rights in North Carolina…


Social Issues

play sound

The long-delayed Farm Bill could benefit Virginia farmers by renewing funding for climate-smart investments, but it's been held up for months in …

Environment

play sound

Conservation groups say the Hawaiian Islands are on the leading edge of the fight to preserve endangered birds, since climate change and habitat loss …


Jane Kleeb is director and founder of Bold Alliance, an umbrella organization of Bold Nebraska, which was instrumental in stopping the Keystone Pipeline. Kleeb is also one of two 2023 Climate Breakthrough Awardees. (Bold Alliance)

Environment

play sound

CO2 pipelines are on the increase in the United States, and like all pipelines, they come with risks. Preparing for those risks is a major focus of …

Environment

play sound

April has been "Invasive Plant Pest and Disease Awareness Month," but the pests don't know that. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it's the …

Legislation to curtail the union membership rights of about 50,000 public school educators in Lousiana has the backing of some business and national conservative groups. (wavebreak3/Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Leaders of a teachers' union in Louisiana are voicing concerns about a package of bills they say would have the effect of dissolving labor unions in t…

Health and Wellness

play sound

The 2024 Arizona Alzheimer's Consortium Public Conference kicks off Saturday, where industry experts and researchers will share the latest scientific …

Environment

play sound

Environmental groups say more should be done to protect people's health from what they call toxic, radioactive sludge. A court granted a temporary …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021