A federal lawsuit has been filed against King County, Wash., for its decision to reject advertisements about “Israeli war crimes” on downtown Seattle buses.
The Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign and the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Seattle last week charging that King County violated the campaign’s First Amendment rights.
The suit asks the court to order the county to place the ad for four weeks on the sides of 12 buses, as the Metro Transit system and its ad agency originally agreed to do.
The Seattle Midwest Awareness Campaign had paid $1,794 to place the advertisements on 12 buses beginning Dec. 27, the second anniversary of the day Israel entered Gaza to stop rocket attacks on its southern communities. The ads feature a group of children looking at a demolished building under the heading “Israeli War Crimes: Your tax dollars at work.”
On Dec. 24, King County Executive Dow Constantine ordered the Metro Transit system to reject the ad as well as any other new noncommercial advertising.
The acceptance of the ad had generated thousands of angry phone calls, faxes and e-mails, many from out of the county and state, according to reports. In response Constantine announced Dec. 24 that the proposed ads presented “significant security concerns.”
ACLU Executive Director Kathleen Taylor said the security concerns should have been addressed without canceling the ads. — jta