ICC Note: Last November, the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington filed a lawsuit against the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) after an ad for their Christmas campaign was rejected. The ad was rejected due to a policy that prohibits any ads that are religious or political in nature, which the church suggested “silences any viewpoint that might challenge commercialism or consumerism.” A recent appeals court decision upheld the ruling in favor of the WMATA.

08/01/2018 United States (Christian Post) – A three judge panel of the District of Columbia Circuit Court has upheld the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s rejection of a Christmas ad by the Catholic Church.

In a decision released Tuesday, the panel ruled against the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, which had sought to include their “Find the Perfect Gift” ad campaign.

While current United States Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was part of the panel, according to the decision’s text he did not participate in the panel opinion.

Judge Judith Rogers authored the court opinion, concluding that WMATA was not unlawfully suppressing the Archdiocese’s viewpoints with its ban on religious ads, because banning all religious ads in a “non-public forum,” regardless of sect, doesn’t violate religious freedom.

The ruling labeled metro’s ad space a “non-public forum,” which meant that the government could restrict what advertising it allowed, including religious and political content.

Not allowing the limitation of ads to commercial content would “upend decades of settled doctrine permitting governments to run transit companies without establishing forums for debate on the controversial issues of the ages and of the day,” Rogers wrote, “including not only the subject of religion but also politics and advocacy issues.”

Rogers also concluded that the archdiocese’s argument would open the gates to allow for all kinds of advertising content that most people may find objectionable.

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