ACLU vowed to file free speech lawsuit challenging “Traditional Marriage” plate

Delegate L. Scott Lingamfelter is withdrawing a controversial bill to authorize the Division of Motor Vehicles to produce a special Virginia license plate with the words “Traditional Marriage” on it. HB 1660 passed the House of Delegates on a 62-35 vote, but faced a stiffer test in the Senate.
The bill had drawn the ire of gay rights organizations, which claimed that the plates were tantamount to a state-issued bumper sticker expressing anti-gay sentiments. Civil liberties groups said the bill would violate free speech because the ‘Traditional Marriage’ plate spoke to only one side of the gay union issue.
The ACLU of Virginia threatened to file a lawsuit based on recent legal precedents holding that state-issued personalized license plates are public forums in which all viewpoints on a subject must be allowed. Thus, if a state authorizes a license plate opposing an issue, it must also authorize a plate in favor of the same issue.
“The ‘Traditional Marriage’ plate would certainly have failed to stand up against a free speech court challenge,” said ACLU of Virginia executive director Kent Willis. “Delegate Lingamfelter either finally realized this or it was clear to him that his counterparts in the Senate realized it. Whatever the reason, we’re delighted to see the end of this bill.”
Several years ago the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Virginia had unconstitutionally censored a license plate issued on behalf of the Sons of Confederate Veterans when it refused to allow a depiction of the Confederate battle flag to be displayed on the plate. Relying on the Confederate Veterans precedent, the Fourth Circuit last year held that South Carolina’s “Choose Life” license plate constituted viewpoint discrimination because legislators did not also allow a plate espousing an alternative view on reproductive rights.
The ACLU has tried for years to convince the General Assembly surrender the special license plate process to the Department of Motor Vehicles, where all special plates would be allowed so long as applicants met certain viewpoint-neutral requirements related to the cost of producing the plates.
“The very idea that a governing body gets to vote on which views are permitted in a public forum undermines everything that the free expression stands for,” added Willis. “The first rule of the First Amendment is that government cannot dictate what viewpoints are expressed in a public forum--and that is precisely the rule violated here.”

ACLU of Virginia Contacts: Kent Willis, Executive Director Aimee Perron, Legislative Director 804-644-8022