{"id":7840,"date":"2012-09-29T18:08:19","date_gmt":"2012-09-29T18:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/?p=7840"},"modified":"2012-09-29T18:46:14","modified_gmt":"2012-09-29T18:46:14","slug":"new-yorks-mta-the-first-amendment-the-hecklers-veto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/new-yorks-mta-the-first-amendment-the-hecklers-veto\/","title":{"rendered":"New York\u2019s MTA, the First Amendment & the Heckler\u2019s Veto"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Cross-posted on the Corner<\/a><\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/em> reports:<\/p>\n

[New York\u2019s] Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved new guidelines for advertisements on Thursday, prohibiting those that it \u201creasonably foresees would imminently incite or provoke violence or other immediate breach of the peace.<\/p>\n

The 8-to-0 vote by the authority\u2019s board came three days after pro-Israel ads characterizing Islamist opponents of the Jewish state as being \u201csavage\u201d began appearing in subway stations, setting off vandalism, denunciations of the authority and calls for the ads\u2019 removal.<\/p>\n

The authority had initially rejected the ads, citing their \u201cdemeaning\u201d language. The group responsible for the ads, the American Freedom Defense Initiative, sued, and in July won a federal court ruling on First Amendment grounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve gotten to a point where we needed to take action today,\u201d Joseph J. Lhota, the authority\u2019s chairman, said at a news conference on Thursday.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If this power is abused (not, of course that such a thing could ever, ever happen), it enshrines the heckler\u2019s veto.<\/p>\n

The authority said it believed the new guidelines adhered to the court\u2019s ruling and would withstand any potential First Amendment challenge. Under the new policy, the authority will continue to allow so-called viewpoint ads, but each will be required to include a disclaimer noting that the ad does not imply the authority\u2019s endorsement of its views.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The disclaimer is, of course, fine. Mind you, I\u2019m not sure that I want that MTA have \u201cviews\u201d about anything other than the operation of a transportation system.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou deal with a free-speech issue with more free speech,\u201d Mr. Lhota said.<\/p>\n

During the public comment portion of the authority\u2019s meeting on Thursday, several speakers assailed the placement of the ads\u2026.Many at the meeting held signs echoing the Occupy Wall Street movement\u2019s message. \u201cThe subway belongs to the 99 percent,\u201d they read. \u201cTake the racist ads down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pamela Geller, the executive director of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, also spoke, though she was repeatedly shouted down.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Whatever you may think about Pam Geller (or the ads) that doesn\u2019t sound a lot like what \u201cdealing[ing] with a free-speech issue with more speech\u201d was meant to mean.<\/p>\n

Oh well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted on the Corner The New York Times reports: [New York\u2019s] Metropolitan Transportation Authority approved new guidelines for advertisements on Thursday, prohibiting those that it \u201creasonably foresees would imminently incite or provoke violence or other immediate breach of the peace. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[51,760,742],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7840"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7840"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7853,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7840\/revisions\/7853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}