• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, May 2, 2018

The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) filed suit today against the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) over its ban on advertising that involves controversial issues. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court For Eastern Pennsylvania by the American Civil Liberties Union and its co-counsel in the region. 

The CIR wanted to run transit ads via the SEPTA system to highlight public data its reporters collected and analyzed that found racial disparities in the conventional home mortgage market in 61 metro areas across America, including in Philadelphia. 

CIR notes that its investigation has prompted the Pennsylvania attorney general to probe racial discrimination in Philadelphians’ access to home loans. 

SEPTA didn’t respond immediately to a request for comment. But according to CIR, SEPTA rejected its proposed ad because of its policy that bans ads with “political” content, including anything that relates to government policies and ads that take a position on “matters of public debate.” 

The lawsuit argues that both of these prohibitions violate the free speech provisions of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. The suit asks the court to declare SEPTA’s policy regarding the rejected ads unconstitutional and to order SEPTA to run CIR’s ads. 

The complaint filed today can be accessed here. 

“It’s always a bad idea to give the government the power to choose what ideas can be heard,” stated Reggie Shuford, executive director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania. “Time and time again, the Supreme Court has rejected the notion that the government has a legitimate interest in censoring political speech or speech it finds offensive. Debate on public issues is the cornerstone of participatory democracy. No government entity, including SEPTA, should single it out for censorship.”