Alaina Gertz, spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), meanwhile insisted that the group had obtained a permit to hold a rally in front of the Planned Parenthood facility, but not to paint the street. Gertz said in an email that MPD issues permit to assemble and markings on the street would have to be permitted by the D.C. Department of Transportation. However, as per the lawsuit, Washington, D.C. violated their First Amendment rights through "viewpoint discrimination" since the city police arrested them for writing a temporary pro-life message but it is fine with them that the city has been widely vandalized in permanent paint with BLM messages prior to the incident. The appeals court ruling overturned a dismissal of the lawsuit by a lower district court, agreeing with the plaintiff's complaint that Washington, D.C. committed viewpoint discrimination. "The First Amendment prohibits discrimination on the basis of viewpoint irrespective of the government's motive. We hold the foundation has plausibly alleged the district discriminated on the basis of viewpoint in the selective enforcement of its defacement ordinance," the court decision read. The released ruling also noted that after the highly publicized death of George Floyd in the summer of 2020, Washington, D.C. "all but abandoned enforcement of the defacement ordinance during the Black Lives Matter protests, creating a de facto categorical exemption for individuals who marked 'Black Lives Matter' messages on public and private property." "Over several weeks, the protesters covered streets, sidewalks, and storefronts with paint and chalk. The markings were ubiquitous and in open violation of the District's defacement ordinance, yet none of the protesters were arrested," the court decision observed. The court also cited the painting of the "street mural" reading "Black Lives Matter = Defund the Police," during which "police officers watched as the alteration took place and did nothing to stop it," despite the fact that the BLM activists had not obtained a permit or consent otherwise to do so. (Related: Kanye West Says 'everyone knows that Black Lives Matter was a scam.')WATCH NOW:
We are in front of Planned Parenthood right now rallying with Black pro-life leaders to decry Planned Parenthood's past and present racism. Some of us were arrested as we attempted to paint and chalk "Black Preborn Lives Matter." ?https://t.co/KMneo26NLv pic.twitter.com/1H5ZiI6S5t — Students for Life of America (@StudentsforLife) August 1, 2020
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