By L.A. Williams, Correspondent
Christian Action League
October 31, 2013
RICHMOND, Va. — Does North Carolina have a right to speak for itself via a specialty Choose Life license plate, or must the state offer opposing views on issues featured on its tags? That’s the question being considered by justices of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, who heard arguments Wednesday in the lawsuit challenging the issuance of the long-awaited pro-life plate approved by Tar Heel lawmakers more than two years ago.
Assistant N.C. Attorney General Kathryne Hathcock told the court that North Carolina owns the plates and has the right to use them to convey an anti-abortion message.
“This is about North Carolina’s right to speak for itself,” she said.
The Rev. Mark Creech, executive director of the Christian Action League, agreed.
“Prior courts have ruled that ‘the encouragement of childbirth is a legitimate governmental objective,’” he said. “The Choose Life plate lines up perfectly with that goal, so we would argue that it should be considered government speech.”
The state hopes that the Court of Appeals will overturn last December’s ruling by U.S. District Judge James Fox, who deemed the plates unconstitutional since lawmakers did not vote to offer a “Trust Women” or “Respect Choice” pro-abortion tag.
However, Christopher Brook with the American Civil Liberties Union told justices that the state’s license tags were a public forum and that not offering pro-abortion ones created “viewpoint discrimination” and violated the First Amendment. Judge James A. Wynn, one of three on the panel, suggested that not having a pro-abortion plate was “suppressing speech.”
But knowing that the state has more than 150 specialty plates touting everything from mountains to motorcycles, Hathcock posed the question that the CAL and supporters of Choose Life have been asking for several years.
“Will we have ‘Kill the sea turtles’ plates?” she asked.
“It may be considered an absurd question, but what’s really absurd is the ruling that is being appealed,” said Creech. “It is only logical that if the state has to provide the antithesis of its Choose Life plate; it would have to do so with all these other plates as well.”
“The truth is there is nothing wrong with a state speaking up to defend its unborn citizens,” he added. “Then if drivers want to show that they agree with the state by purchasing the plates. that’s their decision.”
The N.C. General Assembly approved the license plates, along with about 80 others, in 2011 after they were repeatedly proposed over a period of eight or nine years. Interested drivers were to pay $25 for the specialty tag, $15 of which would go to benefit the Carolina Pregnancy Care Fellowship, a network of 85 non-profit resource centers that served more than 46,000 women and children last year.
Similar Choose Life plates are available in 29 states where they have helped raise some $12 million for mothers and their families, according to Bobbie Meyer, director of the Fellowship.
The Court of Appeals is not expected to announce its decision for several weeks.