From the Associated Press
Published: November 10, 2009
A federal judge ruled that the state cannot issue license plates showing the image of a cross in front of a stained glass window along with the phrase “I Believe.” Judge Cameron M. Currie of Federal District Court said in her ruling that the license plates were unconstitutional because they violate the First Amendment ban on establishment of religion. The fight over the plates started shortly after Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer helped push the legislation through in 2008. Groups including Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee challenged the law. Judge Currie ordered the state to cover those groups’ legal expenses.
Tags: license plates, south carolina
The outcome of this as in the Dover case is so obvious that you would have thought even the local hacks in the lege would have spared the taxpayers the litigaton costs. Glad the judge made them pay. Maybe they’ll think twice before trampeling in the constitution.
Unfortunately, the legislators are either a) blinded by their religious fervor and/or b) concerned primarily about kowtowing to a religious conservative demographic and indifferent to the cost to the taxpayers. In any event, I cannot imagine anyone pushing for this thinking it makes legislative sense.