Asides

After a year of legal wrangling over First Amendment concerns, Pamela Geller’s anti-Jihad ads went live yesterday. Transportation Nation tracked down enough people to draw out a mixed reaction to the ads which have popped up in ten stations throughout the city. “It’s hard for me to look at this poster and actually take it seriously,” one Muslim woman said.

True to New York spirit though, the ads lasted barely a day before someone took to editing them. As Mondoweiss reports in pictures, someone or someones have taken to placing stickers over the ads with their own message. So far, ads in at least seven stations — 57th Street and 5th Ave, 28th Street, 23rd Street, two on 42nd street, 34th street and Grand Central — have been defaced. Take that for what you will. In the meantime, the MTA has yet to announce a new policy for evaluating advertisements that better adhere to the spirit and letter of the Constitution as they cash Geller’s checks nonetheless.

Pamela Geller’s controversial anti-Islam ads will begin appearing in 10 subway stations throughout the city, the MTA announced yesterday. These ads have been the subject of much litigation over the past few years as Geller’s American Freedom Defense Initiative group successfully sued the MTA over its advertising practices. After Geller won her case on First Amendment grounds, the same judge chided the authority over its slow response to the ruling, and thus, in advance of next week’s board meeting, the authority’s hand has been forced.

As The Times reported yesterday, the MTA is essentially being forced by a judge’s order to accept and publish the ads. The MTA had asked for a stay pending the September 27 board meeting, but the judge told the MTA it had two weeks to revise its policy or appeal. Instead, the MTA will run the ads as the references to Muslims as “savages” do not constitute “demeaning” language under the current guidelines.

The MTA said that, in spite of the geopolitical events in the Middle East, it must accept the ad, but it could have appealed or revised its policies. The judge’s initial ruling gave the authority enough of an out to reject the ad had it worked to restructure its advertising guidelines, but the Board hasn’t met since the ruling came out. So the ad will arrive, amidst controversial and fanfare. Hopefully, a new ad policy isn’t too far behind.