Claiming there is a difference between "content and viewpoint discrimination," the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals today issued a ruling against Choose Life license plates in Illinois. The court effectively ruled that content discrimination is not a First Amendment violation because the state can choose to exclude the "entire subject of abortion." In their view, prohibited viewpoint discrimination would only occur if one side of the subject was allowed, but not the other.
This ruling appears to be inconsistent with the rulings from other Federal appellate courts that required the issuance of Choose Life specialty plates when states rejected them based on message content, finding such actions to be viewpoint discrimination. Most recently in October 2008, appeal of a Ninth Circuit ruling was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court. This Ninth Circuit ruling recognized exclusion of one subject, when other subjects were allowed, as viewpoint discrimination.
Judge Richard Tallman wrote for the appellate court in its January 2008 ruling that the Arizona commission "clearly denied the application based on the nature of the message,” indicating discrimination based on the Pro-Life perspective of the plate sponsors. The concept of rejecting the "entire subject of abortion" was proposed by the state of Arizona, but rejected by the court.
Apparently, none of this precedent made any difference to the Seventh Circuit judicial panel. This is the same Circuit Court that effectively ignored an 8-1 Supreme Court decision in favor of Joseph Scheidler in the NOW v. Scheidler case. Scheidler needed to return to the Supreme Court to get an 8-0 ruling in his favor before the Seventh Circuit was willing to reverse the ruling against Scheidler, as clearly directed by the Supreme Court. Here we go again!
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Thomas Ciesielka, of the Thomas More Society…
We are very disappointed that the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago has reversed the decision handed down on January 22, 2007, by U.S. District Court Judge David Coar. Coar affirmed that Illinois violated the First Amendment rights of more than 25,000 Illinois citizens who signed petitions for Illinois' approval and issuance of 'Choose Life' specialty license plates. Proceeds were to be dedicated to funding adoptions throughout Illinois.
Illinois has approved an entire variety of other specialty plates for pet friendly, pro-organ donation, environmental issues and peace birds. No one ever sought approval or issuance of a "Pro-Choice" plate; we would have no objection to such a plate if sufficient persons signed petitions for it.
The court's decision today is in direct conflict with decisions of many other federal appellate and trial courts. We intend to ask for a rehearing, and failing that rehearing, we will pursue a review of the decision before the U.S. Supreme Court (click here for the entire article).
Contact: William Beckman
Source: Illinois Right to Life Committee
Source URL: http://www.illinoisrighttolife.org
Publish Date: November 7, 2008
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