Supreme Court takes pass on Washington archdiocese bus case

Washington D.C., Apr 7, 2020 / 15:00 pm

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear the Archdiocese of Washington's appeal to place religious ads on public transit in Washington, D.C.

The denial leaves in place the D.C. Circuit Court's 2018 ruling against the archdiocese, which had sought a mandatory preliminary injunction to place ads on Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) trains and buses.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who heard arguments in the case at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in March of 2018 but did not join in authoring the opinion of the court in July, also did not partake in the Supreme Court's decision on Monday.

WMATA first issued guidelines for advertisements on its buses and trains in November of 2015, in which it prohibited ads promoting religion or religious practices and beliefs.

In December of 2017, WMATA rejected an ad proposal by the Archdiocese of Washington during Advent that would have directed people to the archdiocese's "Find the Perfect Gift" campaign website.

The website contained Mass times, Christmas and Advent traditions, and links to make charitable contributions to various Catholic groups. The archdiocese then went to court to have its ads featured in the WMATA transit system.

The D.C. Circuit Court ruled against the archdiocese in July of 2018, saying that the archdiocese failed to prove viewpoint discrimination in the case, or that WMATA had unconstitutionally violated the First Amendment by rejecting religious ads but allowing for secular ones.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, while respecting the Supreme Court's decision to not hear the appeal, credited it to the inability of the full Court to consider the case.

"Because the full Court is unable to hear this case, it makes a poor candidate for our review," the justices stated on Monday.

However, they added, in their opinion WMATA engaged in "viewpoint discrimination" and violated the First Amendment by seeking out Christmas-themed advertisements but rejecting religious ones.

"No one disputes that, if Macy's had sought to place the same advertisement with its own website address, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) would have accepted the business gladly," the justices wrote.

"So the government may designate a forum for art or music, but it cannot then forbid discussion of Michelangelo's David or Handel's Messiah," they continued. "The First Amendment requires governments to protect religious viewpoints, not single them out for silencing."