A nonprofit has the right to post ads comparing Muslims to Hitler on Philadelphia buses, a federal judge decided in a Wednesday ruling against the city's transit authority, the Associated Press reported.
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority considered the advertisement, featuring a 1941 photograph of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and a former Arab leader, a violation of "minimal civility standards."
The slogan "Jew Hatred: It's in the Quran," appears in the ad.
Though the ad may be offensive, a federal judge ruled the nonprofit American Freedom Defense Initiative has a First Amendment free speech right to post the image.
"He agreed with us on all the issues," Robert Muise, a lawyer who represented the New Hampshire-based nonprofit, told CBS Philly. "He found the restriction on our client's speech to be content based and unconstitutional."
The ruling comes after the nonprofit filed over six lawsuits against transit authorities across the nation. The ad in question is part of the group's effort to get the U.S. to stop providing aid to Islamic countries.
SEPTA refused to post the ads over concerns they "put every single Muslim in the same category (of) being a Jew hater," authority General Counsel Gino J. Benedetti said during a December testimony, the AP reported.
Muise said the nonprofit hopes to run the ads after the judge ruled that buses are public spaces.
The authority is considering appealing the verdict, the AP reported.
