4th Circuit - First Amendment - Advertising on buses - state actor In this recent case the 4th Circuit concluded that the Greater Richmond Transit Company was a state actor subject to suit under Section 1983 for restricting an advocacy group from advertising on its buses. The court concluded that the Company was not a private company as it had been created by "special law" and that its directors were all appointed by local government. Concluding thus, the court considered whether its policy to preclude "political" advertising violated the First Amendment. The court noted that the Supreme Court had allowed such restrictions almost 50 years ago in Lehman v. City of Shaker Heights, 418 U.S. 299, (1974) but concluded that the decision had been clarified by Minn. Voters All. v. Mansky, 138 S. Ct. 1876, 1892(2018). Footnote 13 offers a nice description of the various public forums to help distinguish between them and recognized the debate as to whether there are three or four categories of these types of forums. Long story short when you ban "political" advertising you need to describe what you mean in detail including rather specific criteria to allow a person to know what is allowed and what isn't as the term "political" can have many different meanings. White Coat Waste Project vs. Greater Richmond Transit Company 201710.P.pdf (uscourts.gov)<https://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/opinions/201710.P.pdf> (4th Cir. May 20, 2022) Charles W. Thompson, Jr. Of Counsel P: (202) 466-5424 x7110 M: (240) 876-6790 D: (202) 742-1016 [facebook icon]<https://www.facebook.com/InternationalMunicipalLawyersAssociation/>[twitter icon]<https://twitter.com/imlalegal>[linkedin icon]<https://www.linkedin.com/company/international-municipal-lawyers-association-inc./> [logo]<https://imla.org/> 51 Monroe St. Suite 404 Rockville, MD, 20850 www.imla.org<http://www.imla.org/> Plan Ahead! IMLA's 2022 Mid-Year Seminar<https://imla.org/seminars/>, April 8-11, 2022 in Washington, D.C.! IMLA's 2022 Annual<https://imla.org/annual-conference/> Conference, October 19-23, 2022 in Portland, OR! Check out our On-Demand webinar library<https://netforum.avectra.com/eweb/shopping/shopping.aspx?site=imla&webcode=shopping&cart=0&shopsearchCat=Merchandise&productCat=Webinar> with 100+ webinars at your fingertips.