CLE Course: “Free Speech Takes the Bus: Issue Advertising in Public Transit Systems”

This continuing legal education course, approved by the Pennsylvania CLE Board, will be led by FIRE attorney Gabe Walters in our Washington, D.C. office building. Public transit systems, like D.C.’s WMATA or Philadelphia’s SEPTA, for years have banned "political" or issue advertising, despite accepting a wide range of advertising that proposes commercial transactions. This favoring of commercial speech over core, political speech inverts typical First Amendment values and yet has been permissible under the 1974 Supreme Court decision, Lehman v. City of Shaker Heights. But since 2018’s decision in Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Mansky, which held that bans on “political” speech in government-operated forums, without more, are incapable of reasoned applications, lower courts have overturned transit system advertising guidelines with increasing frequency. Is Lehman still good law, and how should it be read in light of Mansky? Gabe, who has litigated some of these recent cases, will provide insight into this rapidly developing area of First Amendment law.

Those interested in attending must sign up to attend.