The initial lawsuit was filed by the ACLU on Nov. 28, 2011 on behalf of activist Blaine Coleman, who had sought to purchase an advertisement for the sides of AATA buses. The AATA refused to run the ad. The proposed ad includes the text, “Boycott ‘Israel’ Boycott Apartheid,” and an image depicting a scorpion-like creature with a skull for a head. [.pdf of image and text of proposed ad]

The two motions heard by Goldsmith on April 19 included one by the plaintiff – for a preliminary injunction or temporary restraining order, to compel the AATA to accept the advertisement for its buses that it had previously rejected. [.pdf of Nov. 29, 2011 ACLU motion for preliminary injunction]

The other motion heard on April 19 was AATA’s motion to dismiss the case. [.pdf of AATA motion to dismiss] [.pdf of AATA brief on preliminary injunction/restraining order] [.pdf of ACLU reply to AATA's response]

At its April 19 regular board meeting, the AATA board members had scheduled a closed session on the litigation, as permitted by the Michigan Open Meetings Act, but did not hold the session because Goldsmith did not rule on the two motions.

This brief was filed from the boardroom of the downtown Ann Arbor District Library, where the AATA board holds its meetings. A detailed report of the meeting will follow: [link]

The board’s decision came in response to an Aug. 12, 2011 letter to the AATA from the American Civil Liberties Union that argues the AATA’s policy on accepting advertising is unconstitutional. The ACLU does concede that the proposed advertisement “arguably subjects Israel to scorn or ridicule,” which is prohibited under the AATA’s ad policy. [From the AATA policy: "Advertising ... which does any of the following shall be prohibited ... 5. Defames or is likely to hold up to scorn or ridicule a person or group of persons."]

However, the ACLU contends that the policy itself is unconstitutional: “An ad paid for by Israel’s tourist bureau encouraging people to visit the county or purchase its products expresses the opposite view and would be accepted under AATA’s policy. A distinction of this kind, based on the message expressed by the speaker, violates the First Amendment.” [.pdf of ACLU Aug. 12 letter] [.pdf of AATA advertising policy]

A key to the ACLU’s position is a 1998 case involving a labor union that had proposed an advertisement on a regional transit authority’s vehicles, but had the ad rejected on the grounds that it was “too controversial and not aesthetically pleasing.” The case was argued and won by the union in the U.S. Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit. [.pdf of United Food & Commercial Workers Union, Local 1099, v. Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority]

Part of the ACLU’s argument relies on the idea that the AATA has, in fact, through its past pattern of accepted ads, established a “public forum,” although the AATA’s ad policy explicitly states that the AATA “does not [with its ad program] intend to create a public forum.”

At its Nov. 17 meeting, the AATA board affirmed its position after voting to go into a closed session – under the provision of the Michigan Open Meetings Act that allows such a session to discuss a written opinion from its legal counsel. The AATA’s legal counsel, Jerry Lax, now with Pear Sperling Eggan and Daniels PC, was also on hand for the closed session. On emerging from the closed session after a bit more than an hour, board members voted on a resolution that affirms the AATA policy on accepting ads and the decision to reject the proposed ad in its current form. [.pdf of AATA board resolution rejecting advertisement]

The resolution invites the ACLU and Coleman to discuss the AATA advertising policy.

The AATA’s advertising policy is administered by the company that sells the ads – Transit Advertising Group.

The AATA receives roughly $80,000 a year in revenues from its bus advertising. The recently approved 2012 fiscal year AATA budget included $29.4 million in revenues.

This brief was filed from the Ann Arbor District Library boardroom, where the AATA board holds its meetings. A more detailed report will follow: [link]

This is an example of a future Chronicle "house ad." The drawing was done by former Ann Arbor News artist Tammie Graves, and the ad itself was designed by Laura Fisher.

In last month’s milestone message, I focused on the idea that part of The Chronicle’s aspiration is to establish a valuable archive of our community’s civic history. The corpus of The Chronicle comprises an independent record of the events of our public bodies, the words spoken at their meetings and their actions taken.

This month I’d like to focus on a different aspect of the accumulating Chronicle archive. One is advertisements – different ads are inserted “on the fly” every time a new page is loaded. So will they be archived in any meaningful sense?

Another angle on The Chronicle archive are the bylines that appear in the publication. Our publication was launched by two people, who reported, wrote, and edited all of the articles.

The collection of bylines now includes a fairly robust collection of freelance writers. And this month I want to tell you about a byline that you won’t be seeing here for the next long while, perhaps ever again – but it’s for all the right reasons.

Ads

Chronicle advertisements, which appear in the left and right sidebars of the site, are inserted each time a page is loaded onto your computer screen, in a random rotation scheme. The computer code for that scheme was programmed by a Workantile Exchange co-worker of mine, Trek Glowacki.

Another Workantile Exchange co-worker, Tom Brandt, pointed out to me in casual conversation recently that a plan to archive all of The Chronicle articles wouldn’t necessarily result in archiving the advertisements. Not unless there was a plan for it.

I certainly would like to include the advertisements in any permanent archive. Why? As I explained in last month’s milestone column:

Sure, in an unguarded moment, I’ll indulge in the reverie that Ann Arbor’s 2110 version of Laura Bien will be mining The Chronicle archives and writing – for some next-century information distribution system – an article called “The Man Who Loved Parking Meters.”

Laura Bien, of course, writes the local history column for The Chronicle. A recent column of hers, “In the Archives: 10 Least Persuasive Ads,” included 10 ads published in newspapers over 100 years ago.

That column of hers pretty well cinched it – the ads needed a safe place in our archives.

And so, to my monthly duties, I’ve added a little job that consists of rounding up all the graphics for the current adds and collecting them into a stand-alone page for the Chronicle. Here’s the June 2010 archive. We’ll include links to those graphics archives in the current list of links in our summary of advertisers.

Bylines

Part of the information that will be archived with each article published in The Chronicle is the byline. Some readers probably won’t have noticed that the set of bylines over the last year has grown more diverse. Others, who pay attention to details like that, will have noticed, for example, that Jennifer Coffman began covering the Ann Arbor Public Schools board of trustees for The Chronicle earlier this spring.

For readers who pay attention to bylines, the name Helen Nevius will be familiar as the reporter who broke an interesting Washtenaw Community College offsite board retreat story. She also has filed some of the recent Ann Arbor District Library board meeting reports, and has written several other pieces as she traced an arc, over the last year and a half, from an Eastern Michigan University intern for The Chronicle to a paid freelance writer.

Helen is moving to Chicago – to attend Northwestern University’s Medill graduate school of journalism. We’ll miss Helen. But we’ve got her byline secured, safe and sound in The Chronicle’s archives.

And in the future, when Helen’s byline turns up in other publications, it will read “Helen Adamopoulos” – she and Sotiri Adamopoulos were married last Sunday at Cobblestone Farm.

We wish Helen and Sotiri all the best.

About the writer: Dave Askins is co-founder and editor of The Ann Arbor Chronicle.