In Salt Lake City, Utah, the AHA’s Appignani Humanist Legal Center has been involved in defending the freedom of speech of the United Coalition of Reason. The Utah Transit Authority refused to allow UnitedCoR to run advertisements on its trains promoting a new local nontheist group, the Utah Coalition of Reason. UTA cited its policy that prohibits all non-governmental, noncommercial ads. In order to determine whether UTA is following its policy or is selectively enforcing it against UnitedCoR in violation of the First Amendment, the legal center submitted a request under Utah’s Government Records Management and Access Act (which is similar to the federal Freedom of Information Act) for copies of all of the ads that UTA had accepted or rejected over the past year. UTA refused to provide the copies, claiming that doing so would violate copyright law. The Utah State Records Committee heard the legal center’s appeal of this decision and ordered UTA to provide access to copies of the ads, agreeing that such access amounts to “fair use” rather than illegal copyright infringement. The legal center will soon be able to review the records and determine whether UTA complied with the First Amendment, and, if not, will bring suit.
MORE: http://www.americanhumanist.org/HNN/details/2012-02-appignani-humanist-legal-center-wins-appeal-in-foia
