Is there a 1st Amendment right to put the rebel battle flag on a license plates?

[Scipio]

I know nothing about this case and didn't read the article.  But thanks to my prestigious law school education, I can inform you that there is a 1st Amendment right to *not* display 'LIVE FREE OR DIE' on your license plate if you're a Jehovah's Witness in New Hampshire.  As cool, gnarly, and authentically American a slogan as it may be, not letting the JWs cover it up when it doesn't impede the purpose of the license plate is too closed to forced speech.

Come to think of it, JWs in New Hampshire are responsible for a disproportionate amount of 1st Amendment case law.  They gave us the "fighting words" doctrine when one of their flock got into with the city marshal and called him out for being a "God damned racketeer" and a "damned fascist."  That's not protected speech.

The heroes of the first amendment, in order: JWs, Nazis, and Santeria worshippers.

[dps]

Yes there is a 1st Amendment right to put stuff on your car. I am not sure the state is required to print it though.

Yeah, as long as you aren't covering up any necessary information (such as the license plate number or the expiration date) you should be able to put a sticker or similar device on your license and have that fall under your 1st Amendment protections.  But requiring the state to provide you with a license already printed with your chosen symbols, slogans, or logos?  No.  It would be like trying to assert that freedom of the press requires the government to print up pamphlets touting your political beliefs.

The only way I see Texas losing would be if some slick lawyer gets the courts to buy some bogus equal protection argument.

[Caliga]

There are two courses of action that make sense:

1.  Allow the Confederate flag.
2.  Don't allow the Confederate flag but also stop allowing all the Jeebus people to put crosses and stuff like that on their plates.  You cannot have it both ways or else the state is discriminating in favor of beliefs it likes vs. ones it doesn't like.

[derspiess]

I bet Cal has that KY license plate with the dog on it.

[Caliga]

I bet Cal has that KY license plate with the dog on it.

Nope, my rear plate is 'vanilla' and not a vanity plate.

My front plate however is a Jim Beam Black plate.

[Valmy]

There are two courses of action that make sense:

1.  Allow the Confederate flag.
2.  Don't allow the Confederate flag but also stop allowing all the Jeebus people to put crosses and stuff like that on their plates.  You cannot have it both ways or else the state is discriminating in favor of beliefs it likes vs. ones it doesn't like.

Wait so if we decide to print plates with the state flower on it we have to print ISIS propaganda? I mean if people want to put ISIS propaganda on their cars go right ahead but I do not see why we have to print it for them. But maybe you are saying if we print license plates for people if we allow them to personalize, we are constitutionally required to allow them to personalize it however they want.

Not sure I buy that one. But again the Supremes will decide this one.

[Caliga]

Wait so if we decide to print plates with the state flower on it we have to print ISIS propaganda? I mean if people want to put ISIS propaganda on their cars go right ahead but I do not see why we have to print it for them. But maybe you are saying if we print license plates for people if we allow them to personalize, we are constitutionally required to allow them to personalize it however they want.

Not sure I buy that one. But again the Supremes will decide this one.

What I'm really hoping for is the second option so I don't have to see any more lame special interest plates.

[Valmy]

What I'm really hoping for is the second option so I don't have to see any more lame special interest plates.

Well in Texas we like when the government sells things because it means less taxes or something so I will have to look forward to the ISIS propaganda

[derspiess]

Nope, my rear plate is 'vanilla' and not a vanity plate.

My front plate however is a Jim Beam Black plate.

Brave man.


Ohio has some bizarre custom plate choices.  You can get a Superman logo, one apparently for beekeepers, or one with a mastodon that says "MASTODON" underneath the picture of the mastodon.  Plus they have not just one, but two pro-life ones plus this one sure to be a Languish fave:

[Caliga]

Maybe I should petition Kentucky to allow an Iron Maiden custom plate with Eddie on it.

"Upping the irons is my religion, Mr. Governor..."

[Capetan Mihali]

My essay on current events:

Our teacher Tim posted some bullshit current events news story about license plates in Texas and whether people can have Confederate flags on them.  Other states allow drivers to put unsympathetic hateful things on their license plates.  For instance, in Connecticut, you can get a plate that says "Preserve The Sound" with a lighthouse on it.  They are talking about the Long Island Sound when they say "The Sound." 

Well, you may not know this, but the LI Sound is a lame, shitty body of water.  There's no waves but it's salt water anyways.  You go swimming in it, you get stung by hundreds of little red jellyfish.  There are a few islands in it, and they are mostly federal land full of virulent deer ticks infected with Lyme disease; this was mentioned in the movie Silence of the Lambs.  In conclusion, I think "what's good for the goose is good for the gander" as my grandpa always said.

The end.
CM, age 11.

[Admiral Yi]

 

[Berkut]

There are two courses of action that make sense:

1.  Allow the Confederate flag.
2.  Don't allow the Confederate flag but also stop allowing all the Jeebus people to put crosses and stuff like that on their plates.  You cannot have it both ways or else the state is discriminating in favor of beliefs it likes vs. ones it doesn't like.

Wait so if we decide to print plates with the state flower on it we have to print ISIS propaganda? I mean if people want to put ISIS propaganda on their cars go right ahead but I do not see why we have to print it for them. But maybe you are saying if we print license plates for people if we allow them to personalize, we are constitutionally required to allow them to personalize it however they want.

Not sure I buy that one. But again the Supremes will decide this one.

I think once you allow people to personalize their plates you provide them, you certianly open it up to first amendment issues. You can't pick and choose what they will allow.

As one justice pointed out, if you allow the state to say no to rebel flags, do you have to allow the state to say no to "Go Democrats" while allowing them to say yes to "Go Republicans"?

Either the answer is that they can make that distinction, in which case there is a real problem of the state endorsing some viewpoints in favor of others, and what standard does the state use to do so, or you don't allow either, or any.

Alternatively, you allow everything, and that includes grossly offensive stuff like "Let's Kill The Jews" or something equally clearly reprehensible, which means the program immediately goes away.

[grumbler]

JWs swear? 

Grumbler was raised JW.

[Eddie Teach]

That's clearly false.

The group emerged from the Bible Student movement, founded in the late 1870s by Charles Taze Russell with the formation of Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society, with significant organizational and doctrinal changes under the leadership of Joseph Franklin Rutherford.[10][11] The name Jehovah's witnesses[12] was adopted in 1931 to distinguish themselves from other Bible Student groups and symbolize a break with the legacy of Russell's traditions.