COLUMBUS, Ohio — Abortion rights supporters dropped a lawsuit challenging the state's sale of "Choose Life" license plates because the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Tennessee to continue selling similar plates. The American Civil Liberties Union had argued on behalf of the National Abortion Rights Action League in Ohio that the specialty plates, which bear the slogans "adoption builds a family" and "Choose Life," were unconstitutional because the state did not offer an opposing plate for abortion rights supporters to buy.
In June, the Supreme Court agreed with a decision to allow the Tennessee plates by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, where the ACLU's Ohio case was pending. "I think it's unfortunate that the 6th Circuit didn't see it our way," NARAL Ohio Executive Director Kellie Copeland said Thursday. "We still believe that it's viewpoint discrimination because the state legislature refused to grant us an opposing viewpoint license plate." Tennessee's "Choose Life" plates are expected to be available in another two months, Revenue Commissioner Loren L. Chumley said Thursday. The launch was delayed after the plate's design needed to be changed slightly to pass visibility standards set by the Department of Safety.
Tennessee officials have said 1,265 car owners pre-ordered the specialty plate for a $35 surcharge and $70 is personalized. Half the proceeds for the "Choose Life" plates are slated for anti-abortion groups, while 40 percent is dedicated to the arts and 10 percent for the state highway fund. The Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit group that has defended such plates nationwide, lauded the ACLU's decision last week to drop the Ohio lawsuit because similar programs countrywide have contributed millions of dollars to groups that counsel pregnant women about adoption, using fees added to the cost of the
plates. "The ACLU realized it didn't have a prayer in its case against the Ohio Choose Life plate," Liberty Counsel founder and Chairman Matthew Staver said in a statement Wednesday. The plates in Ohio cost an extra $30 — $20 of which benefits the pregnancy counseling groups. The Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles has sold about 2,300 of the plates, making it the agency's third most-popular design introduced last year, behind a design featuring a cat and dog that benefits animal shelters and
Cincinnati Bengals specialty plates, spokesman Fred Stratmann said.
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2 comments:
that's dirty. i absolutely agree with NARAL and the ACLU....everyone should be able to have a voice here.
If they are so determined to make a statement, why don't they just make bumber or window stickers that say the same thing. Then, they don't have to worry about this whole legal system process.
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