U.S. District Judge John Shabaz ruled earlier this month that Rev. Ralph Ovadal’s free-speech rights were not violated when police told him to remove his anti-homosexuality banners, which caused a dangerous slowdown of traffic, from highway overpasses.

Advocate.com:

A Wisconsin minister’s free speech rights were not violated when Madison police told him to remove antigay banners from highway overpasses, a federal judge ruled. U.S. district judge John Shabaz told the Reverend Ralph Ovadal of Monroe, chairman of Wisconsin Christians United, that testimony in the trial of his lawsuit against the city showed that the “spectacle” created by the banners on September 2, 2003, created a traffic hazard by causing traffic to slow.

“But there is nothing that suggests it was the message” that caused the dangerous slowdown or caused police to ask demonstrators to leave, Shabaz said Monday. “There’s no evidence to suggest it was the message. None whatsoever. People were asked to leave [the overpasses] only because of the narrow circumstances…. You can’t do it at rush hour. It isn’t the message we [motorists] don’t like, it’s the fact that we can’t get home on time.”

Ovadal said it was likely he would appeal. “The bottom line is, based on traffic congestion caused by a minor accident up the road, and based on angry reactions to our message, we were banned from sharing our message. I believe the appeals court will see that,” he said. “I think the city very skillfully manipulated the facts.”

I missed this story when it first appeared two weeks ago.