The problem with North Carolina’s ‘Choose Life’ license plate
BY NOAH FELDMAN
North Carolina offers drivers a license plate with the anti-abortion slogan “Choose Life,” but for years has refused to offer a pro-choice plate. If you think that sounds like the state is unlawfully choosing between the two viewpoints, you’re not alone. In 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit said the state had to play fair under the First Amendment and allow both.
Last week, the appeals court reversed itself – and not by choice. It was following orders, by applying the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 decision that upheld a Texas license-plate program in which the state refused to allow a plate featuring a Confederate battle flag.
The 4th Circuit’s decision is technically correct under the Texas precedent. But it shows a serious flaw in the Supreme Court’s free-speech jurisprudence.
The Texas decision featured an unusual five-justice majority of the court’s four liberals plus Justice Clarence Thomas. The logic was simple and binary. Either the license-plate program should be considered speech by the person choosing the design or it counted as government speech ...
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