THURSDAY'S EDITORIAL

By T&D Staff

THE ISSUE: Specialty license tags

OUR OPINION: High court decision gives S.C. reason

to reconsider specialty license tags

State tags no place for free speech battle

Free speech is one of the most cherished of our rights in the United States.

While you can't fell "Fire!" in a crowded theater and obscenity standards can affect content, there otherwise should be few limits on your right to express yourself.

Bumper stickers and personalized license tags have for years been a favorite American vehicle for expression. The courts have backed up people's right to express themselves with some outrageous messages.

A thornier issue landed South Carolina in court at the forefront of a battle over free speech.

So-called vanity license tags in which drivers are allowed to compose their own messages or select state-sanctioned messages are being challenged as much over what is not allowed as what is.

A federal judge overturned a South Carolina law that allows citizens to select a "Choose Life" tag. The decision was upheld in a decision by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction in South Carolina, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.

The appeals court ruled the plates violate the First Amendment because they give anti-abortion advocates a forum to express their beliefs while abortion rights supporters have no license plate of their own.

The decision is at odds with a ruling made by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, saying that Louisiana abortion rights advocates had no standing to sue that state over its anti-abortion plate. That battle has now shifted to a broader challenge of the specialty tag system.

The issue was expected to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. But that won't happen.

The high court on Monday declined to consider the South Carolina case. Without comment, justices let stand the 4th Circuit ruling. The high court's move means South Carolina will either have to eliminate the specialty plates or begin offering plates with abortion-rights views.

Supporters contend the specialty plate's message is no more than an expression of support for and celebration of life.

They are ignoring the obvious connotation and controversy. "Choose Life" is a slogan for groups opposed to abortion. Lawmakers rejected the idea of allowing persons to purchase tags with a message supported by abortion rights groups.

South Carolina, in fact, has defended the law with an open admission of discrimination.

In legal briefs, the state argued "there is little dispute but that the voice of the State of South Carolina expresses a preference for childbirth over abortion" and that the "Choose Life" license plates are government speech.

South Carolina has no business being embroiled in this battle. The state should not be in the business of politicizing license tags on this issue or others. It's one thing to allow tags with college colors and quite another to get in the middle of one of the most controversial and emotional debates on the American landscape.

As much as anyone might support a "pro-life" position on abortion, there is no reason to fight over the message being expressed officially on license plates.

That the "Choose Life" tags could provoke on both sides of the abortion issue is proof positive that putting the state in the business of officially endorsing one political or social view over another is simply not a good idea.

The official state licensing mechanism has a clear purpose. Embroiling the tags in a fight over political free speech is not it.

The court decisions are reason enough for S.C. to take a second look at sanctioning specialty license tags.

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