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Indiana Atheist Group Sues Over Rejection of Bus Ad

By Howard M. Friedman

The Indiana Atheist Bus Campaign (IABC) was organized to eliminate the stigma of atheism. Building on campaigns in Canada and the UK, its goal was to place ads promoting its views on city busses. However the Bloomington (IN) public transit system rejected IABC's ad, which read "You Can Be Good Without God." The company based its refusal on the transit system's policy that excludes controversial public service announcements or ads on controversial public issues. (Atheist Bus Campaign press release.) On May 5, the ACLU, on behalf of IABC, filed a federal lawsuit challenging the transit company's ad policy as unconstitutionally vague and overbroad. The complaint (full text) in Indiana Atheist Bus Campaign v. Bloomington Public Transportation Corp., (SD IN, filed 5/5/09) seeks a declaratory judgment and an injunction. An ACLU May 7 press release (Word.doc) as well as IndyChannel on Friday reported on the lawsuit. IABC announced today that, in contrast to Bloomington, the Transpo bus system in South Bend (IN) will run their ad.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on May 11, 2009 (boomark / email).