Last week, the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority Board of Directors upheld its decision to refuse to run an anti-Israel advertisement on the sides of AATA buses despite opposition from the
The ad — an illustration of a skeletal spider-like creature surrounded by the words “Boycott ‘Israel'” and “Boycott Apartheid” — was submitted to AATA by local pro-Palestinian activist Blaine Coleman, according to a Nov. 17 Ann Arbor Chronicle article. In August, Michael Steinberg, legal director of the ACLU Fund of Michigan, ACLU Staff Attorney Daniel Korobkin and David Thomas, president of the ACLU’s Washtenaw branch, sent a letter to the AATA board arguing that the AATA’s advertising policy violates the First Amendment.