If only the important cases were resolved so sensibly
Let GR8 PL8 Ruling Stand
March 13, 2004
2BAD4U
Too bad, that is, if you wanted the Legislature to approve a vanity license plate for your car with the image of Cesar Chavez or Martin Luther King Jr., or a plate that declares "Choose Life" or support for pediatric AIDS research, the National Guard or the San Francisco football team.
A federal judge in Sacramento has, praise be, put an end to battles in the Legislature over approving new special-interest license plates, an issue that has sharply divided the Senate and Assembly in recent years. Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. ruled unconstitutional late last month a state law that gave lawmakers "unfettered discretion" in picking and choosing which organizations and special interests would get plates and which would not.
The 24-page ruling said the 1st Amendment did not give the Legislature a right to allow views "it finds acceptable while denying access to those wishing to express less-favored or more-controversial views." The suit was brought by the Women's Resource Network, a nonprofit organization that promotes adoption over abortion, after the Legislature — dominated by pro-choice Democrats — rejected its request for a special plate declaring "Choose Life."
A federal court in Louisiana earlier issued a similar ruling, striking down a Louisiana law patterned after California's.
