In this case we are required to decide the constitutionality of Tennessee’s statute making available the purchase of automobile license plates with a ‘Choose Life’ inscription, but not making available the purchase of license plates with a ‘pro-choice’ or pro-abortion rights message.
How do you think the court ruled on that issue, Patricia Ireland?
That’s right, the court upheld that Tennessee “Choose Life” license plates law:
Government can certainly speak out on public issues supported by a broad consensus, even though individuals have a First Amendment right not to express agreement. For instance, government can distribute pins that say ‘Register and Vote,’ issue postage stamps during World War II that say ‘Win the War,’ and sell license plates that say ‘Spay or Neuter Your Pets.’ Citizens clearly have the . . . right to oppose such widely-accepted views, but that right cannot conceivably require the government to distribute ‘Don’t Vote’ pins, to issue postage stamps in 1942 that say ‘Stop the War,’ or to sell license plates that say ‘Spaying or Neutering Your Pet is Cruel.’
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[Invalidating] the Act in this case would effectively invalidate not only all those government specialty license plate provisions that involve a message that anyone might disagree with, but also effectively invalidate all manner of other long-accepted practices in the form of government-crafted messages disseminated by private volunteers. We are not provided with a sound legal basis for making that leap.
How do you think the court ruled on that issue, Patricia Ireland?
That’s right, the court upheld that Tennessee “Choose Life” license plates law:
Government can certainly speak out on public issues supported by a broad consensus, even though individuals have a First Amendment right not to express agreement. For instance, government can distribute pins that say ‘Register and Vote,’ issue postage stamps during World War II that say ‘Win the War,’ and sell license plates that say ‘Spay or Neuter Your Pets.’ Citizens clearly have the . . . right to oppose such widely-accepted views, but that right cannot conceivably require the government to distribute ‘Don’t Vote’ pins, to issue postage stamps in 1942 that say ‘Stop the War,’ or to sell license plates that say ‘Spaying or Neutering Your Pet is Cruel.’
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[Invalidating] the Act in this case would effectively invalidate not only all those government specialty license plate provisions that involve a message that anyone might disagree with, but also effectively invalidate all manner of other long-accepted practices in the form of government-crafted messages disseminated by private volunteers. We are not provided with a sound legal basis for making that leap.