{"id":12292,"date":"2008-06-07T23:11:13","date_gmt":"2008-06-08T06:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2008\/06\/07\/i-believe-2.html"},"modified":"2008-06-07T23:11:13","modified_gmt":"2008-06-08T06:11:13","slug":"i_believe_2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/06\/07\/i_believe_2.html","title":{"rendered":"“I Believe”"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

It appears that South Carolina will be putting out an “I Believe” specialty license plate<\/a>, similar to the one that was shot down in Florida (pictured), including the cross and stained glass window. Christian conservatives say amen, while civil libertarians promise law suits over the official state sanction of religion (particularly a specific religion, Christianity).<\/p>\n

I’m torn.<\/p>\n

On the one hand, speciality license plates are ostensibly available to any group that chooses to pony up for it, and are not for profit.<\/p>\n

\n

Mr. Sanford told the department to charge people just enough to reimburse the state for the cost to produce the plate, estimated at $4 to $6, and to not allow any organization to benefit from its sales.<\/p>\n

The state offers 200 other specialty plates, supporting organizations like colleges, sororities, Boy Scouts and the Surfrider Foundation. The state charges up to $70 for those plates. The profit is sent to the sponsor.<\/p>\n

A supporting organization normally pays the $4,000 start-up cost to create a plate. Because no organization will sponsor the \u201cI Believe\u201d plate, at least 400 people have to buy one before the state will produce it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And nobody, of course, is obliged to buy one. Further, the argument could be made that, as is the case with college license plates, just as the state doesn’t necessarily endorse university X’s team over university Y, neither should the provision of a particular religion’s license plate be seen as an endorsement of that religion, especially since people can decorate their car with religious bumper stickers and decor to their heart’s content.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the plate are printed and offered by the state, and have an official “air” about them. And they are clearly not only theistic (which would be of dubious constitutionality), but sectarian — “I Believe” … in crosses and stained glass windows<\/em>, which means we’re probably not believing in the tenets of Buddhism and Bahai in here.<\/p>\n

I guess the question is similar to the placement of sectarian monuments on public land: would Muslims be able to get an “Allahu Akbar” license plate issued if they paid for the the $4K startup cost? How about atheists putting out an “I Dis<\/em>believe” plate? <\/p>\n

The question, to me, is simple — if the state legislature would not approve either of those, then clearly “I Believe” plates violate the establishment clause. Plentiful SCOTUS decisions back that up.<\/p>\n

And if they would approve them — well, fine. Aside from it being bad taste (and arguably poor Christianity) to flaunt one’s belief in Jesus … well, I’m a believer (so to speak) in the marketplace of ideas. If any are advertised by the State then pretty much all need to be advertised by the state. And that’s okay. But if they play favorites — that’s not.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

(via Les)<\/p>\n

<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It appears that South Carolina will be putting out an “I Believe” specialty license plate, similar to the one that was shot down in Florida (pictured), including the cross…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-law","category-religion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13377,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/01\/08\/witnessing_bashing_and_li.html","url_meta":{"origin":12292,"position":0},"title":"Witnessing, bashing, and licensing","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 8-Jan-09 7:52am","format":false,"excerpt":"South Carolinian conservative Christian groups are up in arms over the federal court injunction against the state's \"I Believe\" license plate (previously discussed here). The plate includes stained glass windows...","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51510,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/06\/18\/license-plates-as-government-speech.html","url_meta":{"origin":12292,"position":1},"title":"License plates as government speech","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 18-Jun-15 10:21am","format":false,"excerpt":"It's hard to divorce my thoughts on this from the subject matter involved, but my feelings on this are mixed.On the one hand, license plates are not bumper stickers, but are issued by the state government. As such, they have the right to decide what messages they are willing to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8402,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/11\/28\/license_to_babb.html","url_meta":{"origin":12292,"position":2},"title":"License to babble","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 28-Nov-05 10:58am","format":false,"excerpt":"When did license plates become billboards for, well, everything? State Rep. Steve Hurst, D-Munford, has prefiled a bill in the Alabama House that would require most Alabama car tags to...","rel":"","context":"In "Cars"","block_context":{"text":"Cars","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/cars"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13219,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/06\/23\/potpourri_on_a_monday_mor.html","url_meta":{"origin":12292,"position":3},"title":"Potpourri on a Monday morning","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 23-Jun-08 7:36am","format":false,"excerpt":"NASA remains silent on rocket that could rescue the...\u00a0from www.chicagotribune.com Opponents say it's untested, unproven, and distracts from getting the job done. 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