The Supreme Court announced it will consider if states can prevent citizens from creating specialty license plates considered offensive by the public. The Court will hear an appeal by Texas on a 2011 case wherein the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled for the Sons of Confederate Veterans who argued disallowing their confederate flag plate constituted viewpoint discrimination. (Nasdaq, December 5, 2014, by Dow Jones Business News)
In 1997, the Court ruled that a license plate was a form of private speech on private property but left open the issue of whether the message was government speech or generally private speech. In 2009 the Court held that the government had a right to expression thus the authority to refuse to accept a particular type of monument for a public park. (SCOTUSBlog, December 5, 2014, by Lyle Denniston)
In 2011, the Court ruled against viewpoint discrimination in a North Caroline case disallowing a law authorizing a “Choose Life” license message and banning a “Respect Choice” plate. (The Los Angeles Times, December 7, 2014, by David G. Savage)