This is an open and shut case of free speech. Judge Hood told us we could expect a decision by the end of the week --- this is post-America.
No decision yet in Detroit ad dispute Chad Groening - OneNewsNow
A national public interest law firm that defends and promotes America's Christian values says it will probably be August before a judge makes a ruling on whether their client can resume a bus ad campaign that reaches out to individuals who want to leave Islam.
Last week, a federal judge denied the Thomas More Law Center's (TMLC) motion for a temporary restraining order against the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART) in Detroit. That would have forced the business to display 
banners that are part of a campaign called "Leaving Islam," which is sponsored by the Freedom Defense Initiative (FDI).
The judge did hear testimony on the FDI's motion for a preliminary injunction and said she would rule on it in about 30 days.
Robert Muise, senior trial counsel at the Thomas More Law Center, argues that SMART cannot discriminate based on viewpoint.
"Under the same guidelines that they're claiming that our clients can't post their advertisement that says, 'Leaving Islam? Do you need help,' they permitted an atheist organization to post advertising that says, 'If you do not believe in God, you're not alone,'" Muise reports. "So now they want to pick and choose as the government which viewpoints they permit and which ones they don't permit."
The TMLC senior trial counsel adds that his clients were forced to file a similar lawsuit against the Miami-Dade transit authority before that company backed down and displayed the ads. Those advertisements are also running in New York and San Francisco.
"The law is so strong on our side, which I think is the reason why the other cities acknowledged that they have to, under the First Amendment, allow these advertisements," he concludes.
