A Christian license plate in South Carolina has been ruled unconstitutional by a federal district court. The license plate showed a cross, stained glass window and the words “I Believe.”
The ruling overturned the state law known as the “I Believe” Act which gave the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) authority to issue the license plate.
U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie held that “such a law amounts to state endorsement not only of religion in general, but of a specific sect in particular.”
All you have to do now is hold a vote and make SC a Christian State and say you want “I Believe” on every plate. It works for marriage.
I hope I’m not that jaded but all I see is a source of revenue for the state. Crank out plates with references to other religions if you want to be fair and also include our atheist friends but moving a visual reference to one’s beliefs from your bumper sticker to your license plate doesn’t seem worth getting worked up over.
I rarely side with the libs in these kinds of cases. But the court got this one right. This was so far over the line it was not even a close call. The SC legislators should all have their pay docked to cover the legal expenses they foisted on the tax payers for this foolishness.
What I find/found interesting about this case is if someone proposed a license plate for “pro-gay” something or other or a plate for Atheists of America, etc., the same Christian folk who wanted the I Believe plates would be the people who would be screaming bloody murder.
As AO (#3) says, I rarely side with the libs, but AO is right. What a waste of taxpayer money, on a completely unnecessary salvo in the culture wars.
By all means, fight the good fight, but choose relevant battles. The back of one’s car has a gazillion places for asserting one’s opinion, including declaring one’s belief in Christianity. Christians are not in any way limited in their ability to visually assert their beliefs to the fellow tailgating them.
This sort of thing makes it that much harder to convince secular people when we do have a case to make — e.g. in the case of govt coercion of Christian physicians or hospitals to perform abortions.
Here in the Great State of Texas you have your choice of “God Bless America”, “God Bless Texas” and “Knights of Columbus” specialty plates. The KoC plate says “One Nation under God”.
I don’t know if any of these received the same attention that SC’s plate did but then again we have “Texas – It’s like a whole other country”
A simple cross on the rear bumper……with or without the words “I believe…….should suffice. The court is right.
I agree. License plates should not be advertising tools. We should just go back to the basic plate. If you want to advertise certain causes, they have bumper stickers for all kinds of causes and you can even make your own.
YBIC,
Phil Snyder
RE: “It works for marriage.”
Well . . . only for the faddish, currently popular minority sexual orientations touted by folks who like that sort of thing . . . no love given to the other unpopular minority sexual orientations.
Oh wait, sorry — thought you were talking about the various court’s votes creating a new right.