Does your license plate speak for you or your state? Supreme Court to Decide

Drive across the vast expanse of Texas and you're liable to see license plates celebrating everything from Dr. Pepper and Mighty Fine Burgers to Horned Lizards and Wild Turkeys.

Nothing is more popular in one of the nation's most conservative states, however, than the U.S. military and its veterans. No fewer than 92 of its 385 specialty plates honor their service.

Former congressman Ben Jones, who 
played Cooter on "The Dukes of Hazzard," 
is national spokesman for Sons of 
Confederate Veterans. (Photo: Bob Riha, Jr.)

But when it came to adding a 93rd such license plate -- one commemorating Confederate soldiers -- Texas balked. Its refusal, following objections raised by residents who equate the Confederate flag with slavery and oppression, will be taken up next week by the Supreme Court.

The case combines one of the most basic legal concepts -- freedom of speech -- with conundrums such as: Who is speaking, the government or the driver? Can subject matter be limited, or specific viewpoints? Must states give equal time to both sides of an issue -- say, both "Save the Sea Turtles" and "Kill the Sea Turtles?"

Moreover, if license plates have limits, how about memorial bricks and tiles on municipal or school property? Advertisements on city buses? Government web sites?

Read the rest of the story HERE.

Supreme Court to decide if Confederate flag licenses plates are a First Amendment right

Texans can select their license plates to declare themselves as “Animal Friendly.” Their plates can urge passersby to “Be a Blood Donor” or to “Choose Life.”

The state plates, though, cannot depict a Confederate flag, as sought by the Texas Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Consequently, the Supreme Court on Monday must confront the question of whether Texas is illegitimately discriminating against certain speech.

The court’s eventual answer will settle, in turn, on the more basic and surprisingly complicated question of whether it’s the driver or the government that speaks with a license plate.

“There have been conflicts over what the rules should be for a long time,” Sons of Confederate Veterans attorney R. James George, Jr., said in an interview Friday, adding that the case “is about when the state can say no, and why.”

Read the rest of the story HERE.

If you like what you see, please "Like" us on Facebook either here or here. Please follow us on Twitter here.