A federal judge has ruled that the state did not violate the First Amendment rights of the owners of Albany’s “Wandering Dago” lunch cart when it was banned from slinging sandwiches in a government complex because of the anti-Italian slur in its name.
Northern District federal Judge Mae D’Agostino dismissed the lawsuit filed by the truck’s Italian operators, Andrea Loguidice and Brandon Snooks, who had claimed that the state had no right to censor them.
As vendors in Albany’s Empire State Plaza government complex, they were working in a “nonpublic forum,” so the state needed only to show that it was acting reasonably, D’Agostino ruled on Tuesday.
The truck’s owners pointed out the government didn’t take offense to a business named “Red Poppies: A Polish Pantry.”