Pro-choice option added to NASCAR plate bill

The Senate Transportation Committee recommended the pro-choice plate after Cohen attached his proposal to legislation giving racing fans another year to obtain 1,000 signatures for NASCAR plates. Preselling 1,000 license plates is a condition of getting a design approved by state safety officials.

With the “Choose Life” plate still embroiled in a federal lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Cohen argued Wednesday that a pro-choice option is needed to keep the pro-life plate. If pro-choice advocates have a chance for their own plate, the lawsuit would be undermined, he said.

“It doesn’t mean you’re pro-choice if you vote for it,” he told other members of the committee. “It means you’re pro license plate.”

Some lawmakers didn’t like the amendment.

“This is not right to try to put on someone else’s bill,” said Sen. Mae Beavers, R-Mt. Juliet, a committee member. “The pro-choice people need to come forward with their own bill if they want a license plate.”

Cohen said the pro-choice lobby will not get 1,000 people to pay $35 extra for their own plate.

“There’s never going to be a pro-choice plate. Believe me. It’ll never happen,” he said.

The bill the license plate amendment is attached to would extend the deadline to June 30, 2005, for 1,000 NASCAR fans to pledge to purchase the specialty plate. The current deadline is June 30, which supporters don’t believe they can make.

Sen. Michael Williams, R-Maynardville, filed the original bill and voted against Cohen’s plate proposal, which passed 4-3. Williams voted for the amended bill.

“I had a NASCAR bill,” Williams said. “They put me between a rock and a hard place.”

Voting for the amended bill were Cohen and Sens. Jerry Cooper, D-Morrison; Jim Kyle, D-Memphis; and Rosalind Kurita, D-Clarksville. Voting against it were Beavers and Sen. Don McLeary, D-Humboldt.

Tennessee offers more than 100 specialty license plates benefiting colleges and universities, Ducks Unlimited, the Great Smoky Mountains and a slew of other subjects.

The ACLU is challenging the state on two grounds concerning the plates. It claims the state’s way of awarding specialty plates is unconstitutional and that legislators cannot allow some groups to use state license plates for their political issues while denying others.

A U.S. District Court judge ruled last month that the lawsuit could proceed.

The Senate version of the NASCAR bill now goes to the finance committee. The House bill, which has not been amended, had been delayed.

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On the Net:

Tennessee General Assembly: http://www.legislature.state.tn.us

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Information from: The Tennessean, http://www.tennessean.com