US Judge Rules for Muslim Defector Bus Ads

DETROIT (AP) - A group that says it helps Muslims quit their faith has won a court order against Detroit's regional transit system for rejecting bus ads that ask, "Fatwa on your head? ... Leaving Islam? Got questions? Get answers!"

U.S. District Judge Denise Page Hood granted a preliminary injunction Thursday against the bus system, which was sued last year by the American Freedom Defense Initiative.

The advocacy group says the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation violated the group's First and 14th Amendment rights by rejecting the ads it submitted May 12.

"There is a strong likelihood," the judge wrote, that the ad's promoters could show that the bus company's decision to reject the ads "was not reasonable but rather arbitrary and capricious." Hood set a conference on the case for April 11.

SMART declined comment on the case Friday. In court filings, the bus system said its policies against political and several other types of ads are constitutional.

A self-described Christian rights legal center representing the ads' sponsors said the bus company showed its double standard by accepting earlier atheism advocacy ads.