A Winter Park, Florida man has filed a federal lawsuit against Cincinnati, arguing that the city's Black Lives Matter mural on Plum Street gives him a constitutional right to paint his own message on a city street too. Chris Langdon wants to create a mural depicting Jesus, Buddha, the Prophet Muhammad and Moses standing arm in arm beneath the caption “Peace & Religious Tolerance,” and he's seeking $10,000 in damages from Mayor Aftab Pureval and another $10,000 from the city itself.
The lawsuit, reported by FOX19, was filed just days before a fresh refurbishment of the Plum Street mural for BLINK; the mural was originally painted in 2020 and was privately funded at the time. Langdon told the station the First Amendment gives him the same right to express his views on Cincinnati's streets as anyone else, and said his complaint also references All Lives Matter, Brown Lives Matter and Yellow Lives Matter, arguing that statements shouldn't be reserved for only one race.
A Familiar Legal Playbook From a Repeat Litigant
This isn't Langdon's first swing at a public forum argument. Two decades ago, he filed a federal lawsuit arguing that commercial web platforms were public forums subject to First Amendment access, an argument that was rejected. FOX19 reports that Langdon has also sued other cities over the same equal-access-to-streets theory, and he told the station he believes people have equal rights to paint city streets whether or not they live in Cincinnati. He's hoping the case eventually reaches the Supreme Court if the city declines to settle, per the station's report.
Cincinnati has a ready-made legal defense built into the mural's history. When the city council unanimously passed the ordinance authorizing the Plum Street painting back in June 2020, it explicitly declared the city was adopting the Black Lives Matter message as its own official speech and policy position, according to WVXU. That legislative language matters because it's designed to satisfy the government speech doctrine the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed in Shurtleff v. City of Boston, a 2022 ruling that laid out a three-factor test for whether a municipal display counts as the government's own speech exempt from public forum rules.
Courts Elsewhere Have Sided With Cities
Federal appeals courts have consistently rejected similar challenges to city-authorized BLM street murals. The Second Circuit in 2022 and the D.C. Circuit in 2023 both found, as detailed by Reason, that city-sanctioned street paintings are non-forum government speech rather than open forums for private expression. A similar dispute played out in Bloomington, Indiana, in 2022, where a student group sued after the city denied its request to paint an All Lives Matter mural; a court ordered the city to establish an application process for its public-art program.
Mayor Pureval isn't backing down. He called the lawsuit frivolous and said he supports the Black Lives Matter mural, which he maintains represents the city's own speech and values and will remain in place, according to FOX19's report. Fox19 legal analyst Mark Krumbein said the case raises a concept that has surfaced before — an individual seeking to do what another party has already been allowed to do — and he compared the dispute to past fights over religious displays, including a Christmas tree on Fountain Square.
A Mural With a City-Funded History
Cincinnati has literally put taxpayer money behind the artwork. In May 2021, the city council passed Ordinance 212-2021, authorizing $125,000 in municipal funds to restore and preserve the mural after its initial seasonal wear, according to the City of Cincinnati. That direct public investment could complicate the government-speech defense, since it shows the city treating the mural as more than a one-time private gesture.
The latest refresh came together just ahead of the lawsuit. Between October 4 and October 8, local artists completed a major redesign called “Passing the Torch,” the mural's fourth refresh, introducing new artwork across its 17 letters along with a new poem titled “We Must,” according to Movers & Makers. The mural project was the brainchild of Alandes Powell, and the nonprofit collective Black Art Speaks was involved in it, the outlet reports. The update was tied to Cincinnati's BLINK 2026 festival.
Whether Langdon's suit gains any traction may hinge largely on how Cincinnati's specific ordinance language and funding history stack up against the precedents already set in New York, Washington and Bloomington. For now, the mural stands freshly repainted, and the mayor says it isn't going anywhere.
