Southwest pilots sue City Hall over banned Midway billboard

Southwest pilots may have the freedom of the skies, but they don't have the freedom to say whatever they want at Midway Airport. At least not on a billboard, according to City Hall, which has barred the Southwest Airlines Pilots' Association from using airport advertising to complain about pilots' stagnant wages. So now the pilots are suing the city of Chicago, saying its refusal to allow a billboard at Midway in advance of Southwest's May 18 shareholders meeting in Chicago is an unconstitutional restriction on their First Amendment rights. While the city says its decision to ban the billboard was based on guidelines enacted last summer that preclude the display of "all political and public issue advertising" at O'Hare and Midway airports, the pilots union says it was told the ad was banned because the city found it "offensive" and worried what Southwest would think. "This case represents a classic instance where a governmental entity is seeking to restrict speech in violation of the First Amendment because it disagrees with the viewpoint of the speaker," the lawsuit alleges. Depicting a uniformed pilot holding a sign that reads "Shareholder returns: $3.1 billion; Pilot raises: $0" beside the legend "The Pilots of SWAPA welcome Southwest shareholders to Chicago," the ad was rejected twice by the Chicago Department of Aviation, once in a subtly modified version, according to the suit.<br/>