Reuters reports that the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a religious rights dispute brought by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington DC against the Washington DC area transit authority over its policy barring advertisements in its stations and on buses and trains on divisive issues including religion.

Insider reported on this in August 2018 when a federal appeals court upheld the Washington, DC regional transit system’s ban on religious ads, rejecting free speech arguments from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese.

In 2015, the Washington Area Metropolitan Transit Authority (WMATA) stopped taking issue-oriented ads and religious/political messages due to security concerns regarding anti-Muslim ads.

The archdiocese sued the transit system because it rejected the archdiocese’s Christmas-themed ads which featured a link to a website that encouraged donations and attendance at Mass.  A federal judge sided with the transit authority; the archdiocese appealed.

A three-judge appellate panel heard the case in March; Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh then called the transit ad ban “pure discrimination.”  Kavanaugh did not participate in the July 31 appeals court ruling because President Trump has nominated him to the US Supreme Court.

The conservative-majority Supreme Court declined to review the case since now Justice Kavanaugh would not have been able to participate due to his prior service on the court that previously dealt with the case.

“Because the full court is unable to hear this case, it makes a poor candidate for our review,” conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in a statement regarding the court’s action. If Kavanaugh had participated “our intervention and a reversal would be warranted,” Gorsuch added.

Insiders Take: Too bad that the entire court was not available for review of this case. This certainly was headed for a 4 to 4 tie without Kavanaugh’s vote.  Better to focus on other cases where all the judges can be involved.

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