Attorneys for state seek green light for 'Choose Life' plates

By The Associated Press

08.10.01

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NEW ORLEANS — What kind of forum is a license plate? Does it display public or state messages?

The answers to those questions were debated Aug. 8 before a federal appeals court considering a challenge to Louisiana's specialty license tags that display the motto "Choose Life."

The 1999 law authorizing the plates and sending money from their sale to nonprofit groups that counsel expectant mothers has been on hold since last year.

U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval Jr. temporarily blocked the state from issuing the plates last August, ruling the law creating the tags was likely an unconstitutional restraint of free speech.

A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will decide now whether that order should be lifted until Duval holds a full trial.

Arguments this week delved into what likely will be trial issues. Much of the debate centered around whether a motto on a license plate falls under "public speech," which the state cannot censor, or "state speech," which government can control.

"Choose Life" is one of scores of specialty plates that have been authorized by Louisiana's Legislature, available to any motorist willing to pay a $25 surcharge. A similar plate in Florida is also under a court challenge.

Assistant State Attorney General Roy Mongrue argued that programs for expectant mothers and adoption agencies can be legitimately funded by the state. The Legislature has the right to choose to fund those groups through proceeds from the sale of the specialty license plate, he said.

Mongrue also said the state clearly has the right "to express its preference for live birth over abortion." Under the concept of state speech, the state has the right to make a statement whether or not all citizens agree with it, he said.

"State speech does not mean the state has to fund the alternative viewpoint," Mongrue said.

Judge Edith Jones asked: "Suppose it was the Ku Klux Klan?"

Mongrue replied: "The Legislature doesn't pass that, saying it's not its speech."

Using Louisiana's longtime standard license plate motto "Sportsman's Paradise" as an example, Mongrue said: "Animal rights activists might want it to say 'Save the Whale.' The Legislature can say that's not state speech."

Judge W. Eugene Davis raised the question of legislative intent when the "Choose Life" license bill was passed.

"Is this state speech or is it a plan by which those who disagree with state speech are silenced?" he asked.

Attorney Simon Heller, arguing for the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, said the license plate was merely a method by which the state was taking a public stand on the abortion issue — to the exclusion of the pro-choice viewpoint.

Heller said the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that citizens have the right to disassociate themselves from state speech.

Judge Jones pointed out that "no one is forcing anyone to carry this license plate."

Heller countered that the entire specialty license plate program is designed to allow drivers to identify themselves with a point of view. "It strains credulity that all of these plates are state speech," he said.

Jones questioned whether the 5th Circuit could tamper with the funding mechanism in the bill for groups that give abortion alternatives to expectant mothers.

"This is a legitimate program and we do not have the authority to overturn the state's funding of a legitimate program," she said.

Mongrue said that if the plates are ruled illegal, the state could be put in the position of allowing no mottos at all.

"Where do you draw the line on what's controversial?" Mongrue said.

The panel did not indicate when it would rule.

Update

'Choose Life' plates opponents ask full appeals court to hear case
5th Circuit panel had sent case back to lower court with instructions to dismiss, saying plaintiffs didn't have standing to sue Louisiana.  04.16.02

Previous

Federal judge blocks Louisiana's 'Choose Life' plates
Free-speech provisions in First Amendment require license plate designs to be neutral, court says in issuing temporary order.  08.30.00

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