PETA has filed a First Amendment lawsuit against the Los Angeles Metro Transit Authority (“Metro”) for refusing to sell advertising space to PETA to promote plant-based diets. Metro based the denial on its noncommercial speech policy, but has sold space to a number of other nonprofit organizations. PETA alleges that Metro’s selectively-applied policy constitutes impermissible viewpoint discrimination and prior restraint on free speech. PETA is asking the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California to rule that Metro’s policy is unconstitutional on its face and as applied and order Metro to grant PETA the same access it has provided to other advocacy organizations and non-profits.
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