{"id":51510,"date":"2015-06-18T10:21:48","date_gmt":"2015-06-18T16:21:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/06\/18\/license-plates-as-government-speech.html"},"modified":"2015-06-22T15:42:05","modified_gmt":"2015-06-22T21:42:05","slug":"license-plates-as-government-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/06\/18\/license-plates-as-government-speech.html","title":{"rendered":"License plates as government speech"},"content":{"rendered":"

It's hard to divorce my thoughts on this from the subject matter involved, but my feelings on this are mixed.<\/p>\n

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 have on them, as such messages carry an implication of the government accepting or sponsoring them. (If that were not the case, then why would the SCV be so insistent on having their own specialty plates, vs. again, a bumper sticker with whatever the heck they want?)<\/p>\n

If the state has the right to restrict what gets spelled out on a vanity plate, it would seem to me they have the right to decide what organizations or logos get put on specialty plates.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, I can't help but think of the analogy to the courthouse lawn. The government is presumed to have a certain sponsorship of such messages, which is why they tend to be (in court rulings regarding religious displays) a matter of all or nothing: either the government allows nobody to post messages there, or they have t let everyone post them. Allowing viewpoint discrimination in such a case is generally not allowed.<\/p>\n

My sense is that the SCOTUS ruling here is probably the correct one — but that it opens up much more scrutiny for the basis or guidelines upon which it discriminates against particular viewpoints But I'm open to persuasion one way or the other here.<\/p>\n

(Actually, this points up for me the folly for states of having specialty license plates in the first place.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n
\n<\/a>
\nSupreme Court says Texas can keep Confederate flag off license plates<\/a><\/span>
\nThe Supreme Court has freed states to control what appears on their specialty license plates, ruling ;Thursday that Texas authorities were justified in refusing to issue a plate bearing a Confederate battle flag.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 have on them, as … Continue reading “License plates as government speech”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,133,108,740,24,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-censorship","category-history","category-race-racism","category-writing-and-language","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12292,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/06\/07\/i_believe_2.html","url_meta":{"origin":51510,"position":0},"title":"“I Believe”","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 7-Jun-08 11:11pm","format":false,"excerpt":"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...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/i-believe.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8750,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/04\/25\/bumper_crop.html","url_meta":{"origin":51510,"position":1},"title":"Bumper crop","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 25-Apr-06 7:21pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The original intent of license plates was to demonstrate that someone had purchased a state (or county or city) license for their vehicle. Eventually, they became a handy law enforcement...","rel":"","context":"In "Media & Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Media & Culture","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43581,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/15\/license-plates-and-free-speech.html","url_meta":{"origin":51510,"position":2},"title":"License plates and free speech","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 15-Jul-14 9:47am","format":false,"excerpt":"Interesting (split) ruling from the 5th Circuit, confirming the idea that license plates with messages, symbols, etc., are personal speech by the person displaying them\u00a0(not state speech by the government issuing them), and therefore Texas cannot block\u00a0license plates by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, including the Confederate flag.Aside from the\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":51510,"position":3},"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":37838,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/16\/religious-freedom-license-plates-and-a-twist.html","url_meta":{"origin":51510,"position":4},"title":"Religious freedom, license plates, and a twist","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 16-Jun-13 7:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Usually it's folks suing about explicitly Christian messages on state license plates. \u00a0In a culture that is overtly (and majority) Christian, that's not difficult to imagine.The twist in this case is that it's a Christian suing, saying that a Native American artwork used on Oklahoma's current plate has an clear\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":24132,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/11\/29\/in-god-we-all-trust-or-else.html","url_meta":{"origin":51510,"position":5},"title":"In God We All Trust, Or Else","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 29-Nov-11 10:38pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The courts have allowed mention of God in official governmental items such as our money and our national motto and the Pledge of Allegiance under the principle of \"ceremonial deism\" -- the idea that it's not really religion, but more of a tribal traditional sort of thing. Which ought 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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51510"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51589,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51510\/revisions\/51589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}