Bill could defuse ACLU lawsuit over specialty plates
“Our hope is that we will meet constitutional muster and also depoliticize the issue so there will still be funding for a lot of excellent causes,” Rep. Jamie Hagood, a Knoxville Republican and the House sponsor of the bill, told The Knoxville News Sentinel.
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit asking U.S. District Court Judge Todd Campbell of Nashville to strike down the present system for specialty license plates on motor vehicles.
Similar lawsuits in other states have been successful and, should that happen in Tennessee, charitable causes that now rely on the plates as a fund-raising device and the state Arts Commission would collectively lose about $11.5 million a year.
Hedy Weinberg, head of the ACLU in Tennessee, says Hagood’s bill “looks like a really good first step” toward resolving what her organization sees as unconstitutional problems with the present system.
Currently, the Legislature votes on each specialty plate — there are about 100 different types — and the ACLU lawsuit says the result is politicians unconstitutionally deciding on what free speech is permitted and what is not.
The lawsuit was filed after the Legislature authorized a plate bearing the words “choose life” that was supported by anti-abortion activists. The lawsuit contends legislators rejected the idea of a “pro choice” plate that would have favored the cause of abortion rights activists.
Hagood said she developed the bill after hearing that Friends of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and other organizations would lose funding if specialty plates are voided in federal court. The Smokies group gets about $600,000 a year from plate sales and renewals.
“(The bill) may be what we have to do to guarantee we have a (specialty plate) program,” said state Sen. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, the Senate sponsor of the bill.
The bill, in essence, would take the Legislature out of the decision-making process and allow issuance of a specialty plate for any organization meeting minimal qualifications, provided it can sign up 1,000 people in advance who pledge to purchase the new plates at $35 each.
The minimum criteria, Hagood said, would specify that the plate’s content “not be obscene,” that it not closely resemble another plate already issued and that the design “could not interfere with law enforcement.”
A plate reading “pro choice” would thus qualify if the minimum 1,000 initial purchasers could be signed up by the supporting organization, Hagood said.
Hagood said the bill is modeled after similar laws in other states, especially Maryland and Virginia, that have withstood court challenges.
The “choose life” plate has been legally challenged in several states, and in some, including Louisiana and South Carolina, courts have ruled the special license plate system unconstitutional.
“If and when they (legislators) choose to create a public forum using license plates, then they have to allow a full range of messages,” the ACLU’s Weinberg said. “They cannot pick and choose the message.”
Although Weinberg said she was encouraged by the new bill, she stopped short of saying its passage would make the ACLU lawsuit moot.
“We’re not in a position to say what would happen if this were to pass or not to pass,” she said.
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