High court turns aside opponents of 'Choose Life' plates
By The Associated Press
12.02.02
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ended an effort to block specialty car license plates in Louisiana with the slogan "Choose Life."
Louisiana is one of seven states that have authorized such car tags, and abortion-rights supporters argued that the state was giving a forum only to anti-abortion views.
Justices today refused without comment to review the tag opponents' appeal.
In 2000, a federal judge had stopped the state from distributing the plates, which have a picture of a baby wrapped in a blanket in the beak of a brown pelican, the state bird. But earlier this year an appeals court said the opposing groups did not have standing to sue.
Lawsuits have been filed in other states over the plates, contending they violate the separation of church and state. Besides Louisiana, states with "Choose Life" laws are Alabama, Florida, Hawaii, Mississippi, Oklahoma and South Carolina. Leaders in other states are considering offering them.
Louisiana charges an extra $25 for the special tags to raise money for organizations that counsel expectant mothers about adoption. A council of religious groups advises the state on how to spend the money.
Simon Heller with the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, representing the plate opponents, told justices in court papers that the "scheme creates a 'symbolic union' of the state of Louisiana with fundamentalist Christian organizations" and could promote religion.
Roy Mongrue Jr., an assistant attorney general in Louisiana, said that the legislature may use license plates to encourage pregnant women to consider adoption and other alternatives to abortion. "The state, acting through ... its democratic process, has the right to speak this message," he wrote in court papers.
The case is Henderson v. Stalder, 02-523.