South Carolina must stop marketing and making license plates that feature the image of a cross and the words “I Believe” while a lawsuit challenging the plates’ constitutionality goes forward, a federal judge ruled Thursday.<\/p>\n
U.S. District Judge Cameron Currie issued the temporary injunction after an hour-long court hearing in which opponents argued that the plates, which depict a stained-glass window with a cross on the left hand side and the words “I Believe” across the top, violate the separation of church and state.<\/p>\n
Washington, D.C.-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State had sued state officials on behalf of two Christian pastors, a humanist pastor and a rabbi in South Carolina, along with the Hindu American Foundation, after a bill creating the license plates sailed through South Carolina’s Legislature.<\/p>\n