Judge Rules against 'Choose Life' License Plates

NEWS & ANALYSIS

Shane Wikfors, executive director of

Arizona Right to Life, displays a "Choose

Life -- IM4IT" license plate

Judge Rules against 'Choose Life' License Plates

September 26, 2005

A U.S. District Court judge has denied the Arizona Life Coalition’s attempt to legalize “Choose Life” license plates – guaranteeing an appeal.

Len Munsil, president and CEO of the Center for Arizona Policy (CAP), confirmed today that the Arizona Life Coalition will appeal today’s decision at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, through its attorney, Peter Gentala. The Arizona Life Coalition, an organization of several pro-life organizations, claims today’s court decision is a violation of its constitutional right to free speech.

Today's court decision is highly troubling for its inconsistency with the U.S. Constitution.

Munsil said, “Judge Rosenblatt’s decision, issued this morning, seems to make the case that speech the government favors in some way is permissible, but allowing a message on life is not.”

Judge Rosenblatt wrote, “... while 11 other requests for a special plate contained a private speech component, most of the messages are non-partisan in nature or messages that the public accepts generally. The 'Fraternal Order of Police,' 'Professional Fire Fighters,' 'Legion of Valor,' 'Stop Running Red Lights,' 'Conserving Wildlife,' and 'Service Above Self' are all slogans that cut across political lines and reinforce important public institutions and policies that seek to better mankind without the imposition of political gamesmanship.”

Munsil said in a CAP email news alert today that slogans promoting unions and wildlife conservation are okay, but the notion that we should “choose life” does not seek to “better mankind”?

“Didn’t our Founding Fathers ‘choose life’ when they wrote in the Declaration that the right to life was ‘unalienable’ and that the purpose of government was to preserve such rights?” Munsil asked. “Moreover, since when is it the government’s job to approve speech? Isn’t part of the First Amendment’s unique wisdom that it protects speech that is not necessarily a message ‘that the public accepts?’”

Munsil said the decision is mystifying on a number of levels, but the Arizona Life Coalition is looking forward to a successful appeal.

Today’s setback could delay by several years the issuing of “Choose Life” plates that would have provided some funding to those who are helping mothers in crisis pregnancies to ‘choose life.’”

Gentala, who serves as legal counsel for the Arizona Life Coalition, said: “Disagreement with the ‘Choose Life’ message is not a valid reason to deny a license plate request. The license plate program was designed to help service organizations, not censor their speech.”

The Arizona state legislature created the special organization plate program so that non-profit organizations could request their own license plate. The plates are available for an additional fee, and some of the proceeds go to benefit the organizations. The Arizona License Plate Commission has approved plates for a number of different organizations. The Arizona Life Coalition met all the statutory requirements to receive a plate, yet its application was denied without explanation

Citizens can purchase a replica of the proposed “choose life” license plate from Arizona Right to Life and place it on the front end of their vehicle.