“Choose Life” license plate goes to court in North Carolina

After setting it on the back burner for eight years, North Carolina courts have finally decided to try making a decision regarding the pro-life license plates, featuring the slogan “Choose Life.

American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina has now filed suit against the issuing of these specialty plates, saying that such expression on license plates is unconstitutional. They argue that it is “viewpoint discrimination” to have a pro-life specialty plate available while there is no alternative supporting abortion. U.S. District Judge James Fox has prevented the Division of Motor Vehicles from issuing the plates until ACLU’s suit could be heard.

The case is boiling down to whether or not specialty license plates can be issued that represent one view without having plates available that represent all other views. The court decision could end up impacting existing license plates that do not currently represent all possible views. In addition to “save the whales” we might see the state have to issue “forget the whales” plates if the logic of the ACLU prevails.