Mayor Muriel Bowser spent $20,000 in taxpayer money to have Black Lives Matter painted on a street leading to the White House.
Now, Judicial Watch (JW) has filed a civil rights lawsuit to force the mayor to allow them to paint “No One is Above the Law” on a city street using their own funds rather than taxpayer money.
JW had asked Bowser for permission to paint the street with their slogan but that request went unanswered so JW decided to sue.
The riots in Washington D. C. led to assaults, damaged businesses, and the burning of a historic church and damage to national monuments, which Bowser did nothing about.
Bowser also renamed part of a street to “Black Lives Matter Plaza.” She also allowed “Defund the Police” to be painted next to the BLM street painting.
JW says that it requested that their message be allowed to be painted on another street and that they would gladly pay the cost of the painting.
They asked for an answer within three days but after three weeks of emails, no answer was ever received.
It was then that they decided to take the matter to court.
Judicial Watch said its lawsuit alleges D.C. officials violated federal civil rights law with respect to:
(a) allowing District streets to be used for the painting of expressive messages, which constitutes protected, First Amendment activity, but denying Plaintiff (Judicial Watch) the timely opportunity to paint its expressive message on a District street for reasons that are not narrowly drawn to achieve a compelling government interest; (b) failing to provide a reasonable basis for denying Plaintiff the timely opportunity to paint is expressive message on a District street; (c) favoring the expressive messages painted on 16th Street NW and/or creating the appearance of endorsing those messages to the exclusion of Plaintiff’s message on a related subject matter; and/or (d) failing to provide reasonable, non-arbitrary processes and procedures for timely consideration of Plaintiff’s request to paint an expressive message on District streets.
“Mayor Bowser gave us the runaround rather than access, as the First Amendment requires, to a D.C. street to paint our timely message and motto: Because No One is Above the Law!” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement. “Our message is especially relevant today because it applies equally to law enforcement and public officials as well as to protesters, looters, and rioters.”
