State taxpayers could be on the hook for a six-figure award to Pamela Geller for her ongoing legal fight to post Islamophobic posters on city buses.
Lawyers for the MTA and Geller’s American Freedom Defense Initiative said in Manhattan Federal Court Thursday they’d agreed to an award of “nominal damages” to the conservative provocateur.
Geller told the Daily News she seeks an award of only $1 — setting the stage for her to seek more money for legal fees.
The $1 award “opens the door to an award of attorney’s fees, which in this case will be north of $100K (not to mention distress and damage to our reputations),” Geller said.
Her latest maneuver comes after Judge John Koeltl ruled in April that the MTA had violated the First Amendment by refusing to accept Geller’s posters showing a menacing man with his face masked in a Middle Eastern-style scarf next to the quote “Killing Jews is worship that draws us close to Allah.”
Before the posters went up, the MTA hastily changed its policy to ban all political speech in ads.
Koeltl then issued a ruling saying that the change in policy had rendered his previous order moot.
But Geller hasn’t given up, and is appealing Koeltl’s decision.
“The plan was and is to defend the freedom of speech. If they continue to try to make an end run around the First Amendment, we will continue to challenge them,” Geller said.
A source said that Geller has agreed to not seek legal fees until the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rules on the case.
“AFDI and MTA are working on language summing up this agreement, but it’s not finished and hasn’t been submitted to Judge Koeltl so we cannot comment further,” MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz said.
Koeltl said in court he looked forward to the appeals ruling, which he hoped would be expedited.
Floyd Abrams, a lawyer with expertise in the First Amendment, said Geller had certainly succeeded in one aspect of her controversial campaign: getting publicity and provoking discussion.
But now the case had entered a new phase.
“A good part of the strategy is to cut her losses . . . and see if in having an earlier victory she can have some element of that recognized by the court,” said Abrams, who made an application to the MTA to hang posters on behalf of an animal rights group.
The posters were denied as a result of the MTA’s post-Geller policy.