In it’s January 8, 2013 story, CNN reports that the state of North Carolina filed an appeal Friday to a judge’s ruling that license plates with the words “Choose Life” on them are unconstitutional because the state does not offer an alternative for supporters of abortion rights.

The state filed its appeal without comment through the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, according to court documents.

This is another of a long line of cases dealing with slogans on license plates.  Law students read about “Live Free or Die” —  the State of New Hampshire’s slogan which was adopted by its legislature in 1971 to replace “scenic.”  The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1977 that the State of New Hampshire could not prosecute motorists who chose to hide part or all of the motto.  The Court decided in Wooley v. Maynard (430 U.S. 705) that the Jehovah’s Witness plaintiff could not be forced to choose between his religion’s “Kingdom” and his State.  The Court concluded that the state’s interests paled in comparison to individuals’ free-expression rights.

A related and interesting issue concerns vanity plates chosen by individual vehicle owners.  It is sort of the reverse: does a state have the right to disallow chosen vanity plates?  The courts have said “yes.”  While common decency suggests that nobody should be able to have a plate that promotes killing or war, for example, but how and when should a state decide to veto a person’s First Amendment right of free speech?  David L. Hudson, Jr.’s article on License Plates (First Amendment Center) is a good read.

The North Carolina appeal comes shortly after U.S. District Court Judge James Fox ruled: “The State’s offering a Choose Life license plate in the absence of a pro-choice alternative constitutes viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment.”

The American Civil Liberties Union had filed a lawsuit in 2011 to stop the specialty plates and called Friday’s appeal “unfortunate.”  “…The state has chosen to prolong what is really a very clear-cut First Amendment issue,” said Chris Brook, legal director of the ACLU’s North Carolina Legal Foundation. “The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has consistently ruled that any time the government creates an avenue for private speech, it cannot restrict that avenue to only one side of a contentious debate.“

The bill for the license plates passed in 2011. The legislation also mandated that money raised from the sale of the specialty plates would go to a nonprofit group that supports crisis pregnancy centers, CNN affiliate WRAL reported.

During the fight to get the bill passed, North Carolina lawmakers voted down amendments that would have created alternatives for abortion-rights supporters such as “Trust Women. Respect Choice,” the affiliate reported.

The “Choose Life” plates are available in 29 states, according to Choose Life Inc., a nonprofit that helps states that want to sell these specialty plates.

Under Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, the law of the land since 1971 has been that abortion is legal.  I can think of many other issues that could use the added publicity of a license slogan and I think the legislature in North Carolina should have turn and run from such a hotly debated issue.  Given the history of the U.S. Supreme Court rulings, North Carolina is going to lose this suit.