US Supreme Court Won’t Hear Bus Ad Case

SEATTLE (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal by an anti-Muslim group who wanted to post ads on buses in Washington state showing photos of wanted terrorists.

The country's highest court denied a petition to hear the case on Monday. Two conservative justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, dissented from that decision.

In refusing to hear the case, last year's ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stands. That court rejected a claim by the American Freedom Defense Initiative that King County violated its First Amendment right to free speech by refusing to post the ads on buses.

The group wanted to display an ad called "Faces of Global Terrorism." It included 16 photos of militants and the statement "AFDI Wants You to Stop a Terrorist." It wrongly claimed the FBI offers a $25 million reward to capture one of the people shown.

King County Metro Transit rejected the banner. It said it failed to meet advertising policies that prohibit ads that are "false or misleading, demeaning or disparaging or harmful or disruptive to the transit system."

The appeals court agreed that the claim about the reward was false.