Orlando, FL – Liberty Counsel filed an amicus brief with the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeal in the case of ACLU of Tennessee v. Bredesen, urging the Court to uphold the Tennessee “Choose Life” license plate. Last year, a Tennessee federal district court found the “Choose Life” specialty plate unconstitutional. Liberty Counsel defended the first successful appellate court ruling involving the Florida “Choose Life” license plate in the case of Women’s Emergency Network v. Bush. Liberty Counsel is currently defending the Arkansas “Choose Life” specialty license plate in Brackett v. Weiss.

Tennessee law provides for numerous specialty license plates. The procedure for approving a specialty plate includes submitting a number of applications of willing buyers, developing an appropriate annual fee and determining the appropriate design or slogan for the plate. The Tennessee ACLU and others filed suit to block the “Choose Life” specialty plate, but none of the plaintiffs had ever applied for their own plate. Instead, the plaintiffs merely lobbied against the “Choose Life” plate and requested that the “Choose Life” legislation include a pro-abortion message or a similar pro-abortion license plate. However, the state law does not allow for the creation of a new plate merely by piggybacking on another specialty plate.

The brief argues that the opponents of the “Choose Life” plate have no standing to file suit since they have never applied for their own specialty plate. The brief argues that if the “Choose Life” message is private speech conducted in a public forum, then the pro-abortion plaintiffs may not censor the viewpoint of the message. To the extent that the speech is government-sponsored speech, the brief argues that the government may selectively promote certain interests without having to represent opposing messages. For example, the government can promote a health message which warns against smoking without having to also promote a pro-tobacco message. The Supreme Court in Maher v. Roe in 1977 ruled that a state may “make a value judgment favoring childbirth over abortion.”

Mathew D. Staver, President and General Counsel of Liberty Counsel, stated: “Abortion proponents never cease to amaze me by their incredulous audacity. These abortion advocates essentially argue a principle that would prohibit any private parade in a public forum simply because a heckler disagrees with the message presented. Abortion advocates are seeking to hijack the “Choose Life” specialty plate. When individuals present a private message in a public forum or when the state presents its own message, the Constitution does not give a heckler the right to play ventriloquist espousing a contrary message.”