SCOTUS: Texas Can Refuse To Issue Vets’ Confederate Flag License Plates

This image provided by the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles shows the design of a proposed Sons of Confederate Veterans license plate. The Supreme Court on March 23, 2015, will weigh a free-speech challenge to Tex... This image provided by the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles shows the design of a proposed Sons of Confederate Veterans license plate. The Supreme Court on March 23, 2015, will weigh a free-speech challenge to Texas’ decision to refuse to issue a license plate bearing the Confederate battle flag. Specialty plates are big business in Texas, where drivers spent $17.6 million last year to choose from among more than 350 messages the state allows on the plates. (AP Photo/Texas Department of Motor Vehicles) MORE LESS
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has upheld Texas’ refusal to issue a license plate bearing the Confederate battle flag, rejecting a free-speech challenge.

The court said Thursday that Texas can limit the content of license plates because they are state property and not the equivalent of a bumper sticker.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans had sought a Texas plate bearing its logo with the battle flag. A state board rejected it over concerns that the license plate would offend many Texans.

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Notable Replies

  1. Counting down the seconds to the cry of “They’re NOT the government’s license plates, they’re OUR license plates!”

  2. I’d rather that Texass and other states allow bigots to publically self-identify.

  3. Waiting for the Gov. of Texas to announce he “will not be bullied by the activist liberal judges on the SCOTUS” and will deploy the Texas Rangers (not the baseball team, well, maybe…) to “enforce deeply held TEXAS values” in the manufacture and distribution of traitorous, anti-american, ENEMY battle flags on Texas state property.

  4. Of course, this also means Texas (and, now, any other state) can refuse to issue ANY license plate, including anything for any cause NOT favored by the Republicans who control the state of Texas (and most other states).

  5. Avatar for ajm ajm says:

    So. If you sell ads on busses you have to sell to Geller but if you sell slogans on license plates you don’t have to sell to Confederate Sons?

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