CINCINNATI — A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled today that a Tennessee law allowing residents to purchase license plates bearing the inscription “Choose Life” does not violate the Constitution.
“Pro-life speech is not second class speech. The Tennessee Legislature has the constitutional right to offer a license plate with a pro-life point of view if it chooses to do so, regardless of what it decides regarding other specialty plates,” said Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel Gary McCaleb.
In the opinion issued today, the 6th Circuit panel noted that, constitutionally speaking, the fact that the “Choose Life” message is considered by some to be more controversial than other messages is irrelevant: “Such a distinction...is entirely indefensible as a matter of First Amendment law.... In the absence of a tenable distinction, invalidating the Act in this case would effectively invalidate not only all those government specialty license plate provisions that involve a message that anyone might disagree with, but also effectively invalidate all manner of other long-accepted practices in the form of government-crafted messages disseminated by private volunteers. We are not provided with a sound legal basis for making such a leap.”
The ruling today increases the likelihood that the U.S. Supreme Court will eventually grant review of a case regarding the constitutionality of pro-life messages on license plates. Conflicting rulings by circuit courts often prompt the nation’s highest court to hear a case on the subject. Today’s ruling created a circuit split due to an earlier ruling in the 4th Circuit that invalidated a similar pro-life license plate in South Carolina.
“ADF is pleased with the ruling today validating pro-life license plates, not only for the voters in Tennessee, but also because it reinforces the truth that pro-life speech is not somehow off limits,” said McCaleb. “If the U.S. Supreme Court hears a case of this nature, we are hopeful they will agree.”
This case,
American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee v. Bredesen, which ADF funded at both the trial level and at the 6th Circuit, was primarily handled by ADF-allied attorneys Jim Bopp and Tom Marzen. A copy of today’s ruling can be read at
www.telladf.org/UserDocs/BredesenRuling.pdf.
ADF is a legal alliance defending the right to hear and speak the Truth through strategy, training, funding, and litigation.
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