Dist. Ct. erred in granting defendant’s motion for summary judgment in action seeking to enjoin defendant from refusing to post plaintiff’s proposed print advertisement in its buses. Subject advertisement, which informed women of existence of “free resource” for women seeking healthcare, did not express or advocate any prohibited moral issue under defendant’s guidelines. Moreover, record did not support defendant’s claim that advertisement advocated plaintiff’s pro-life stance, since neither words “abortion” or “adoption” appeared in proposed advertisement. Also, Ct., which viewed proposed advertisement as public service announcement, found that defendant’s refusal to allow instant advertisement constituted unjustifiable and arbitrary restriction on plaintiff’s free speech rights, and defendant could not look to language in plaintiff’s website to support claim that proposed advertisement violated its policy that banned advertisements that expressed non-commercial, political, religious or moral speech.
Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
First Amendment