Liberty Counsel Asks Court to Uphold Tennessee's Pro-Life License Plate
by Rusty Pugh and Jenni Parker
May 16, 2005
(AgapePress) - A pro-family attorney says pro-abortion forces are once again attempting to stop a "Choose Life" license plate, this time in Tennessee.Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit legal organization based in Orlando, Florida, has attorneys that practice in courts all across the nation, providing legal assistance in cases that advance religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and other pro-family causes. In a current case, the legal group recently filed an amicus brief in the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, urging the court to uphold Tennessee's "Choose Life" specialty license plate.
Tennessee law provides for numerous specialty license plates. Such plates are approved through a procedure that includes submitting a number of applications of willing buyers, developing an appropriate annual fee, and determining the appropriate design or slogan for the plate. But although the "Choose Life" plate was so approved, the Tennessee chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and others filed suit to block it, and last year a Tennessee federal district court found the pro-life specialty plate unconstitutional.
Plaintiffs in that case had lobbied against the specialty plate and requested that Tennessee's "Choose Life" legislation include a pro-abortion message or add a similar pro-abortion license plate. However, Tennessee law does not permit the creation of a new plate by simply piggy-backing another message on a previously approved specialty plate.
Mat Staver | |
Mat Staver is Liberty Counsel's president and general counsel. He says although the pro-abortion side of the controversy has found a judge to stop the "Choose Life" plate temporarily, Liberty Counsel is contending in the amicus brief that the pro-abortion plaintiffs have no legal standing to raise objections to the pro-life plate."We argue in this brief that they don't even have the right to be in court," Staver says. "They have no standing, and the reason is because they've never applied for their own specialty plate.
In fact, that's what's happened in every one of these 'Choose Life' license plate cases in the country. Not one single pro-abortion group or ACLU organization has applied for their specialty license plate."
What the opponents of the "Choose Life" plate do instead, the attorney points out, is "they try to silence those who do apply for their specialty license plate." But Liberty Counsel's brief contends that the pro-life plate's message is private speech conducted in a public forum, so the pro-abortion plaintiffs do not have the right to censor the plate's viewpoint.
But Staver says he is continually amazed by the incredible audacity of "abortion rights" proponents. "These abortion advocates essentially argue a principle that would prohibit any private parade in a public forum simply because a heckler disagrees with the message presented," he observes.
"Abortion advocates are seeking to hijack the 'Choose Life' specialty plate," Staver adds. However, he asserts, "When individuals present a private message in a public forum or when the state presents its own message, the Constitution does not give a heckler the right to play ventriloquist, espousing a contrary message."
To the extent that the Tennessee "Choose Life" plate is government-sponsored speech, Liberty Counsel's amicus brief argues that the government may selectively promote certain interests without having to represent opposing viewpoints. For example, the pro-family litigation experts note, the government can promote a message warning against smoking without having to also promote a pro-tobacco message. In fact, the Supreme Court ruled in Maher v. Roe in 1977 that a state may legally "make a value judgment favoring childbirth over abortion."
Liberty Counsel defended the first successful appellate court ruling involving the Florida "Choose Life" license plate in the case of Women's Emergency Network v. Bush. The legal group is currently defending the Arkansas "Choose Life" specialty plate in the case of Bracket v. Weiss.
