“But the purpose of the complaint is basically saying they don’t get to pick and choose which opinions or which thoughts get to go on the banner.”
“Maybe this time around they didn’t want to appear to be endorsing it, or being associated with it,” said Brian Owsley, a professor of law at UNT Dallas College of Law. The city of Fort Worth’s legal department issued a statement saying that “the city is aware of the lawsuit, believes that it acted appropriately and will defend its position in court.”įort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker’s communications team told the Fort Worth Report that “Mayor Parker does not have a comment at this time due to pending litigation.” Now, it’s more complicated than that,” Carpenter said.
“A government, including the city of Fort Worth, as a general rule, cannot discriminate in speech regulations, on the basis of the content, or the viewpoint of the speech. The question in court will be whether the city refused the banner approval based on its disagreement with the organization’s message, Carpenter said.