Score one for the first amendment! The City of New York tried revoke the permit for an Ecko sponsered graffiti art show on the grounds that it would “imminently cause illegality.” But the judge was not pleased with the city’s attempt at censorship:

He then cuts to the chase, “So, the only real issue is whether the City can lawfully proscribe an otherwise-approved public art exhibition on its streets because that exhibition involves painting graffiti on mock subway cars. The City does not suggest, nor could it, that such painting is itself a crime, since the ‘subway car’ panels are plainly mock-ups. But it claims the right to censor this exercise of free speech expression because, in the words of the Mayor on his radio program last Friday, the exhibition is tantamount to ‘encouraging vandalism.’ By the same token, presumably, a street performance of Hamlet would be tantamount to encouraging revenge murder. Or, in a different vein, a street performance of ‘rap’ music might well include the singing of lyrics that could be viewed as encouraging sexual assault.” And then he set the whole court into an uproar finishing with “As for a street performance of Oedipus Rex don’t even think about it.” I’m telling you this judge made the law and the case and the process pretty interesting.

(Wooster Collective)