They should be required to provide an opposing plate saying "State Parks Suck" or "Down With The Parks!"?
Posted on 09/22/2006 7:48:35 AM PDT by SmithL
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Abortion rights supporters dropped a lawsuit challenging the state's sale of "Choose Life" license plates because the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Tennessee to continue selling similar plates.
The American Civil Liberties Union had argued on behalf of the National Abortion Rights Action League in Ohio that the specialty plates, which bear the slogans "adoption builds a family" and "Choose Life," were unconstitutional because the state did not offer an opposing plate for abortion rights supporters to buy.
In June, the Supreme Court agreed with a decision to allow the Tennessee plates by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, where the ACLU's Ohio case was pending.
"I think it's unfortunate that the 6th Circuit didn't see it our way," NARAL Ohio Executive Director Kellie Copeland said Thursday. "We still believe that it's viewpoint discrimination because the state legislature refused to grant us an opposing viewpoint license plate."
Tennessee's "Choose Life" plates are expected to be available in another two months, Revenue Commissioner Loren L. Chumley said Thursday. The launch was delayed after the plate's design needed to be changed slightly to pass visibility standards set by the Department of Safety.
Tennessee officials have said 1,265 car owners pre-ordered the specialty plate for a $35 surcharge and $70 is personalized. Half the proceeds for the "Choose Life" plates are slated for anti-abortion groups, while 40 percent is dedicated to the arts and 10 percent for the state highway fund.
The Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit group that has defended such plates nationwide, lauded the ACLU's decision last week to drop the Ohio lawsuit because similar programs countrywide have contributed millions of dollars to groups that counsel pregnant women about adoption, using fees added to the cost of the plates.
"The ACLU realized it didn't have a prayer in its case against the Ohio Choose Life plate," Liberty Counsel founder and Chairman Matthew Staver said in a statement Wednesday.
The plates in Ohio cost an extra $30 — $20 of which benefits the pregnancy counseling groups. The Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles has sold about 2,300 of the plates, making it the agency's third most-popular design introduced last year, behind a design featuring a cat and dog that benefits animal shelters and Cincinnati Bengals specialty plates, spokesman Fred Stratmann said.
Hmm...I'm no abortion advocate, but in constituional context they should be allowed to have a "pro-choice" plate.
However, that is not grounds for doing away with the Choose Life plates, simply just grounds for allowing a pro-choice plate.
A "Choose Life" plate is a "Pro Choice" plate. The plate just encourages the choice of life. Liberals just just object to the choice of life. What would their plates say? "Choose abortion?"
Wow,I hope that nobody over at ACLU Headquarters decides to hang him/her/itself due to this stunning defeat.As Gunnery Sargent Hartman would say "that would break my %&$#*^ heart".
Whether we agree with their argument or not, they do have the right to make it, just as much as we can make ours.
Proud of my home state..Ohio.....Been away long time
but "roots" are with you forever...Jake
They should be required to provide an opposing plate saying "State Parks Suck" or "Down With The Parks!"?
If this were the case, then we should be able to have a "kill the whales" license plate here in California.
"Whether we agree with their argument or not, they do have the right to make it, just as much as we can make ours."
Absoloutely. They have just backed themselves in a corner with their "Pro Choice" slogan. The "Choose" in "Choose Life" infers that there is a choice to be made. One of life, one of death. Our side chose "life" on the plates. That leaves "death" for the other side. That is where their "Pro Choice" slogan got them.
Indeed, abortion advocates should have every right to a license plate with "Choose Death" on it. Of course, they don't want that message out there. They don't want our message out there because they cannot counter "Choose Life" with anything even remotely positive.
They have a right to make an argument. They don't have the right to stop Pro-Life people from making theirs, which is what they were trying to do. As far as vanity plates are concerned if they want them they can have whatever they want on a vanity plate if it doesn't violate the rules the state has concering them. Their arguments were useless right from the start.
"Kill Your Baby!! "It's Free!!" "Don't let a child ruin YOUR life!" "Guaranteed Results!!" "Government Funding Available"
Dial MURDER 101
It's a sick society.
In 07, we are able to get this same license plate here in Indiana. I can't wait.
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Unfortunately it is not available. :-(
If that license plate was offerred, then they'd also have to offer a plate that says, "DUh".
Choice plate: Did mommy kill your sibling?
Wild on Washington
Law Enforcement Memorial
Seattle Mariners
Share the Road
I guess they could make plates like: Kill the Wildlife, Felons are people too!, New York Yankees, and Don't Share the Road to go along with their "Choose Death" plates.
LOL! That's a good point.
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