Federal appeals panel hears arguments over 'ARYAN-1' license plate

By The Associated Press

03.15.01

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The state of Missouri says Mary Lewis' license plate was racist. Lewis says she's just racially proud and free to express it.

A case that began in the 1980s has resurfaced in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where both sides offered oral arguments yesterday before a three-judge panel.

The state argues that Lewis' license plate, which read "ARYAN-1," would incite road rage because of its racially charged message.

"The issue is one of public safety," said Erwin O. Switzer III, special chief counsel for the Missouri attorney general's office. "We feel that road rage is enough of a problem without having license plates that promote a philosophy of killing people based on their race."

Lewis' attorney, Bob Herman, said, "The state is afraid of the consequences of allowing Mary Lewis to express her views in a forum that is set up by the state, which allows the expression of views."

While Herman agreed the license plate is offensive because Adolf Hitler used the term to describe a "superior race," he said the First Amendment permits such speech.

Mary Lewis, then named Mary Carr, first applied for the plate in 1983. She kept it until the state ordered her to surrender the plate after they received a complaint in 1986.

A state appeals court initially sided with Lewis, and she was able to keep her plate from 1990 to 1997. That court said the plate was legal because Missouri law prohibited obscenity and profanity but not inflammatory words.

But in 1992, the Missouri Legislature changed the rules to allow the Department of Revenue to deny a vanity plate if its letters or numbers are "inflammatory or contrary to public policy."

In 1997, the Department of Revenue received another complaint and revoked the plate again. Lewis filed suit, and while U.S. District Judge Stephen M. Limbaugh agreed with part of her case, he dismissed the matter in March 2000.

Switzer cited a veteran Missouri Highway Patrol officer's testimony that the plates could spark road rage among other drivers because the message appears on state property. He likened it to the Ku Klux Klan's bid to adopt a portion of Interstate 55. The signs spurred one man with no prior criminal record to cut the sign down.

"The risk of provocation is greater when people see a racist message on a taxpayer-supplied object, regardless of whose speech it is," Switzer told the panel yesterday.

Switzer said it was similar to a plate that read "666," which many people accept as a sign of the devil. Before the state revoked it, the plates inspired vandals to hurl eggs at the vehicle.

In an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Lewis said nobody ever reacted violently to her plates. She said truckers occasionally honked their horn and signaled their approval while driving alongside her on the highway.

"I think everybody has a right to express themselves," Lewis said. "If there is anything left of freedom of speech in this country, I should be able to win (the case). If I don't win, it shows (the) narrow-minded people we have in the state."

Switzer said the issue is simply one of public safety. "People," he said, "get angry when they see tax dollars being used that way."

Update

Missouri ordered to reissue 'ARYAN-1' license plate
State failed to show constitutional justification for censoring tag, appeals panel finds.  06.13.01