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Judge blocks issuing 'Choose Life' plates in NC
WRAL ^ | November 28, 2011

Posted on 11/28/2011 9:38:52 AM PST by NCjim

WILMINGTON, N.C. — A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked North Carolina from issuing special anti-abortion license plates.

The state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union suing to prevent people from paying for the "Choose Life" plates, alleging that they violate the First Amendment because there's no specialty plate for supporters of abortion rights.

U.S. District Judge James Fox issued a temporary injunction to stop the Division of Motor Vehicles from issuing the plates until the suit could be heard.

"This case is ultimately about free speech and equal treatment for all North Carolinians, regardless of their point of view on abortion," Katy Parker, legal director for the ACLU's North Carolina Legal Foundation, said in a statement. "The state should not be allowed to use its authority to promote one side of a debate while denying the same opportunity to the other side."

Twenty-nine states either already make "Choose Life" plates available or have approved such plates but have not manufactured them.

But the plates have a mixed record when it comes to court challenges, with some judges ruling states can sell them and others siding with challengers who say the plates are unconstitutional.

(Excerpt) Read more at wral.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
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To: sodpoodle
Darn it, you beat me to my post! :)

How about since we all know these idiot pro choice peeps are really saying it is a baby when they want it and not a baby when they don't, this should be their License Plate.

"Choose Life or Death depending if you want your baby"

21 posted on 11/28/2011 10:04:46 AM PST by mporter345
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To: sodpoodle

Fox was appointed to the bench by Ronal Reagan in 1982. I guess he proves that nothing is 100% positive, or alternatively this guy has gone senile. With all that’s facing us in this country, I just marvel at the inconsequential stuff that morons can come up with to litigate. While we are cutting, we should take a 50% cut in the Federal Judiciary. They are a bunch of meddling old fools!


22 posted on 11/28/2011 10:07:25 AM PST by vette6387 (Enough Already!)
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To: vette6387

Unless there is some graphic of an embryonic fetus - the words ‘Choose Life’ cannot possibly be deemed offensive.

They could just as easily be an ‘anti-death penalty’ mantra.


23 posted on 11/28/2011 10:11:47 AM PST by sodpoodle ( Gingrich-Cain 2012)
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To: NCjim
Wait, a judge blocks the issuance of pro-life plates, a definite violation of the free speech of one group, because of a claim of a violation of the free speech of another group? Wow!!
24 posted on 11/28/2011 10:19:40 AM PST by SoldierDad (Proud dad of an Army Soldier currently deployed in the Valley of Death, Afghanistan)
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To: NCjim

The judge is an idiot, if the pro abortion group never was told that they could not have a plate then there is no reason to stop this plate from being issued. The ACLU should have been denied because they were never refused. Therefore they have no standing.


25 posted on 11/28/2011 10:27:00 AM PST by Ratman83
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To: NCjim
American Civil Liberties Union suing to prevent people from paying for the "Choose Life" plates, alleging that they violate the First Amendment

What part of 'Congress shall make no law' do they not understand?

26 posted on 11/28/2011 10:38:47 AM PST by Hoodat (Because they do not change, Therefore they do not fear God. -Psalm 55:19-)
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To: NCjim
"North Carolina makes available to the public approximately 100 specialized license plates which allow citizens with common interests to promote themselves and/or their causes. Additionally, most of these specialized plates can also be personalized."

I did not see any alternative plates available for order (here) in the event a person opposes the cause promoted by a particular vanity plate. I wonder why this is only a necessary consideration with respect to the pro-life cause.

27 posted on 11/28/2011 10:49:29 AM PST by Sgt_Schultze (A half-truth is a complete lie)
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To: NCjim

In Virginia, the money from the “choose life” plates goes to adoption services, not “anti-abortion” services, so it isn’t really a plate that needs an pro-abortion counterpart. It theoretically doesn’t hurt abortion supporters at all to have people paying their own money to support adoption services.

But frankly, I’d like to see ALL the license plate deals thrown out. It’s not government’s job to do fund-raisers for private organizations. If you want to make a statement, send a check to your charity, and get a bumper sticker for your car.


28 posted on 11/28/2011 10:52:56 AM PST by CharlesWayneCT
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To: NCjim

To be completely in character, they need to be promoting “Abort black babies” as the alternative plate.


29 posted on 11/28/2011 11:08:43 AM PST by zeugma (Those of us who work for a living are outnumbered by those who vote for a living.)
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To: NCjim

I still never understand this stuff.
How does the 1st Amendemnt apply to a state’s DMV ?


30 posted on 11/28/2011 11:10:16 AM PST by stylin19a (obama - "FREDO" smart)
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To: NCjim
"NORTH CAROLINA STATE CONSTITUTION
PREAMBLE
"We, the people of the State of North Carolina, grateful to Almighty God, the Sovereign Ruler of Nations, for the preservation of the American Union and the existence of our civil, political and religious liberties, and acknowledging our dependence upon Him for the continuance of those blessings to us and our posterity, do, for the more certain security thereof and for the better government of this State, ordain and establish this Constitution.
ARTICLE I
DECLARATION OF RIGHTS
"That the great, general, and essential principles of liberty and free government may be recognized and established, and that the relations of this State to the Union and government of the United States and those of the people of this State to the rest of the American people may be defined and affirmed, we do declare that:
Section 1. The equality and rights of persons.
"We hold it to be self-evident that all persons are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, the enjoyment of the fruits of their own labor, and the pursuit of happiness."

Note: Article I, Section 1's emphasis "life, liberty, the enjoyment of the fruits of their own labor, and the pursuit of happiness."

Judge Fox's ruling reveals much about his judicial philosophy and the degree to which his world view and judicial philosophy may have been influenced by the 20th and 21st Centuries' so-called "progressive" mindset.

Given his own State's Constitution's words, how could a non-prejudicial and logical mind conclude that the words "choose life" represent anything but affirmation of the philosophy of the nation's Declaration of Independence and North Carolina's Constitution?

In order to come to the conclusions stated in his ruling, one must be guided by a more contemporary and "provincial" set of political ideas.

The ACLU and so-called "progressives," with all of their domination of academia and Far Left politics, seem to fit into a category described in an essay by T.S. Eliot on Virgil:

"In our time, when men seem more than ever to confuse wisdom with knowledge and knowledge with information and to try to solve the problems of life in terms of engineering, there is coming into existence a new kind of provincialism which perhaps deserves a new name. It is a provincialism not of space but of time--one for which history is merely a chronicle of human devices which have served their turn and have been scrapped, one for which the world is the property solely of the living, a property in which the dead hold no share."(Bold added for emphasis)

Without intellectual anchoring in the enduring ideas which provided the philosophical foundation of America's Declaration of Independence and Constitution, progressives' vain imaginations of superiority only expose their limited world view.

31 posted on 11/28/2011 11:20:59 AM PST by loveliberty2
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To: DallasDeb

I believe what they would need is a “Choose Death” plate


32 posted on 11/28/2011 12:37:05 PM PST by The Brush
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