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Monday, April 27, 2009
Courts - "Justices Asked to Weigh Free Speech vs. License Plates"
Updating these earlier ILB entries on "Choose Life" license plates, Adam Liptak of the NY Times devotes his "Sidebar" column today to the topic, concluding: "The next great First Amendment battleground, it turns out, is on the back of your car." More quotes:
Illinois, on the other hand, has refused to issue a “Choose Life” plate, a decision that was challenged by a group called Choose Life Illinois, which promotes adoption. The federal appeals court in Chicago upheld Illinois’ refusal in November [ILB entry here], and this month the losing side asked the Supreme Court to return to the question of what the constitution has to say about speech on license plates. [Here is the cert petition]The Supreme Court has turned back at least four requests to hear cases concerning “Choose Life” license plates in recent years. But the volume of litigation on this question and the doctrinal free-for-all it has given rise to in the lower courts have convinced many legal scholars that the court must soon step in.
There have been lawsuits in Arizona, California, Missouri, New York and New Jersey challenging denials of “Choose Life” plates. And there have been a similar number of suits on the other side, challenging approvals of such plates, in Florida, Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Tennessee.
There are apparently only two states with specialty plates sympathetic to abortion rights. Montana has a plate that says “Pro-Family, Pro-Choice,” and Hawaii has an official decal that says “Respect Choice.”
Though Illinois refused to approve a “Choose Life” plate, it does have some 60 other specialty plates, including ones for the alumni of 18 different colleges, for people who support youth golf and for those who wish to assure you that they are “pet friendly.” Five different plates put hunters to the choice of declaring whether they like to shoot deer, ducks, geese, pheasants or turkeys.
The state also recently sold a “special event” license plate, good for only two months, saying “Illinois Salutes President Barack Obama.”
Illinois says that it should be allowed to decide what goes on its license plates because they convey government rather than private speech. If that is right, the First Amendment drops out of the equation, as the government is free to say what it likes.
But most of the appeals courts to consider “Choose Life” license plates have ruled that specialty plates convey the positions of the motorists involved. The appeals court in Chicago, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, ruled against Illinois on this point. Specialty plates, the court said, are “mobile billboards” for “organizations and like-minded vehicle owners.”
Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 27, 2009 01:34 PM
Posted to Courts in general