Supreme Court lets stand lower court ruling that Illinois need not offer ‘Choose Life’ license plates

The Supreme Court rejected a free speech claim from Choose Life Illinois Inc. upholding an appellate court ruling that the plate would have given the impression that Illinois was taking sides in the abortion controversy. -DB

Boston Tribune
By David G. Savage
October 5, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Illinois need not offer “Choose Life” license plates to motorists, under a ruling the Supreme Court let stand today.

The justices turned down a free-speech claim from Choose Life Illinois Inc., a group that supports adoption and opposes abortion.

It had gathered more than 25,000 signatures from persons who wanted a “Choose Life” plate, but the state refused to issue the specialty plate. State officials said Illinois did not want to appear to be taking a position on the abortion issue.

Choose Life Illinois sued the Secretary of State’s office in 2004 after twice failing to get the General Assembly to approve a specialty plate that would read “Choose Life.”

The group said the plate was intended to support adoption-service providers, and it promised that none of the charitable proceeds from the plates would support anti-abortion political activities.

A federal court in Chicago sided with the group, ordering the state in January of 2007 to manufacture “Choose Life” license plates.

U.S. District Judge David Coar concluded that the state’s nearly 60 specialty license plates amount to private speech protected under the First Amendment.

“Where the government voluntarily provides a forum for private expression, the government may not discriminate against some speakers because of their viewpoint,” Coar wrote.

Coar said the case boiled down to whether a specialty plate constituted an individual’s personal speech or the speech of the government itself. “It is undisputed that the reason for not approving the plate was because of the politically controversial nature of the message,” Coar wrote.

The state’s argument that the plate represented government speech didn’t hold water because the state charges an extra fee to people who want to get them, Coar ruled. “It would be surprising indeed for the state to require a private individual to create, apply for and pay for what would be considered government speech,” Coar wrote.

Coar recognized the controversial nature of his ruling. The state “argues that if the ’Choose Life’ message is permissible, then the state would also have to issue Ku Klux Klan or Nazi plates to avoid viewpoint discrimination,” he wrote. “The issue of whether there may be any limits on the right to have messages displayed … does not have to be decided in this case.”

Coar’s ruling, however, was overturned by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in November of 2008.

A three-judge panel of the appeals court ruled that state officials were not violating the First Amendment by declining to issue specialty license plates relating to abortion.

Because the state has excluded the “entire subject” of abortion from its specialty license plate program, its decision to reject a “Choose Life” license plate is permissible under the First Amendment, the appellate court held.

The appeals court concluded that the state’s decision to exclude the subject of abortion from license plates is based on the “reasonable rationale that messages on specialty license plates give the appearance of having the government’s endorsement, and Illinois does not wish to be perceived as endorsing any position on the subject of abortion.”

On Monday morning, the Supreme Court affirmed the appellate ruling.

Despite Monday’s setback in the high court, 24 states offer “Choose Life” license plates, and efforts are under way to gain approval in 14 more states.

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