{"id":24230,"date":"2012-12-12T21:03:24","date_gmt":"2012-12-13T02:03:24","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=24230"},"modified":"2012-12-12T21:04:00","modified_gmt":"2012-12-13T02:04:00","slug":"pro-life-license-plates-struck-down-as-unconstitutional-in-north-carolina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-life-license-plates-struck-down-as-unconstitutional-in-north-carolina\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro-life license plates struck down as unconstitutional in North Carolina"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

North Carolina requires<\/a> that specialty license plates be authorized by the North Carolina General Assembly. In 2011, the North Carolina General Assembly passed a bill authorizing 70 new licenses plates, creating a total of 150 specialty plates that could be bought by North Carolina residents. Included in this 2011 bill was a \u201cChoose Life\u201d plate.<\/p>\n

\"ncchooselife\"<\/a>The \u201cChoose Life\u201d plates would cost an additional $25.00, with $15.00 of that to go to the Carolina Pregnancy Care Fellowship. Under the Fellowship\u2019s guidelines, funds are \u201cexpressly prohibited from \u2018be[ing] distributed to any agency, organization, business, or other entity that provides, promotes, counsels, or refers to abortions.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time the \u201cChoose Life\u201d plate was being considered, a \u201cRespect Choice\u201d or \u201cTrust Women. Respect Choice\u201d plate was proposed. But it was rejected each time it was brought up.<\/p>\n

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) brought a lawsuit alleging that \u201cthe State has opened a state-created forum for private speech to one viewpoint alone in the public debate over abortion.\u201d The lawsuit claimed that allowing \u201cChoose Life\u201d without a \u201cRespect Choice\u201d option violated the First Amendment right to freedom of speech.<\/p>\n

Judge Fox was the judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina to rule on this case, and he found on Friday that the \u201cChoose Life\u201d plates were unconstitutional<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The judge spent considerable time discussing whether this was government speech, private speech, or hybrid speech, each of which carries with it different regulations. Different types of speech carry different rules regarding what is required for a violation of the First Amendment, with purely government speech having the strictest rules.<\/p>\n

Finding that the \u201cChoose Life\u201d license plates are not purely government speech, the court looked at the law\u2019s purpose, the editorial control, and who bears the responsibility for the speech.<\/p>\n

First, with regard to the \u201cpurpose\u201d of the relevant law at issue, common sense dictates that it is to allow North Carolina drivers to express their affinity for various special interests\u2026. To state that the purpose of the relevant statute was to express that State\u2019s message of supporting the idea of choosing life over abortion is to ignore the larger governmental specialty license plate program as a whole.<\/p>\n

\u2026<\/p>\n

With regard to editorial control, it is undisputed that the State exercises complete editorial control over the Choose Life plates, even if the idea for the plate may have originated with the national Choose Life organization.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

South Carolina considered the same issue in 2004, with Judge Michael writing:<\/p>\n

Although the Choose Life plate was made available through state initiative, the private individual chooses to spend additional money to obtain the plate and to display its pro-life message on her vehicle.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And so, on page 20 of a 21-page decision<\/a>, the Court decided that the North Carolina \u201cChoose Life\u201d plates were \u201cat bottom, a government-sponsored avenue to encourage private speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that, the Court simply stated:<\/p>\n

This court also concludes, as did each of the judges in Rose<\/em> [the South Carolina Case], that the State\u2019s offering of a Choose Life license plate in the absence of a pro-choice plate constitutes viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And so, \u201cChoose Life\u201d license plates are now unconstitutional in North Carolina.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Viewpoint discrimination?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":200,"featured_media":24232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nPro-life license plates struck down as unconstitutional in North Carolina - Live Action News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-life-license-plates-struck-down-as-unconstitutional-in-north-carolina\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pro-life license plates struck down as unconstitutional in North Carolina - Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Viewpoint discrimination?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-life-license-plates-struck-down-as-unconstitutional-in-north-carolina\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-12-13T02:03:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-12-13T02:04:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/ncchooselife.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"318\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"173\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Heidi Miller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Heidi Miller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-life-license-plates-struck-down-as-unconstitutional-in-north-carolina\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-life-license-plates-struck-down-as-unconstitutional-in-north-carolina\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Heidi Miller\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/31ef29343a5c21e4507f76129f2497ae\"},\"headline\":\"Pro-life license plates struck down as unconstitutional in North Carolina\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-12-13T02:03:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-12-13T02:04:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-life-license-plates-struck-down-as-unconstitutional-in-north-carolina\/\"},\"wordCount\":540,\"commentCount\":26,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-life-license-plates-struck-down-as-unconstitutional-in-north-carolina\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-life-license-plates-struck-down-as-unconstitutional-in-north-carolina\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-life-license-plates-struck-down-as-unconstitutional-in-north-carolina\/\",\"name\":\"Pro-life license plates struck down as unconstitutional in North Carolina - 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