SCOTUS: Texas Doesn't Have to Allow Confederate Plate

The Supreme Court today upheld Texas' refusal to issue a license plate bearing the Confederate battle flag, rejecting a free-speech challenge. The court said in a 5-4 ruling that Texas can limit the content of license plates because they're state property and not the equivalent of bumper stickers. The Sons of Confederate Veterans had sought a Texas plate bearing its logo with the battle flag. A state board rejected it over concerns that the license plate would offend many Texans. Justice Stephen Breyer said the state's decision to reject the group's plate did not violate its free-speech rights. Justice Clarence Thomas and the court's other three liberal justices joined Breyer's opinion.

The Texas division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans sued over the state's decision not to authorize its proposed license plate, similar to plates issued by eight other states of the former Confederacy and Maryland. A panel of federal appeals court judges ruled that the board's decision violated the group's First Amendment rights. Texas' main argument to the Supreme Court is that license plates are government property, and so what appears on them is not private individuals' speech but the government's. The First Amendment applies when governments try to regulate the speech of others, but not when governments are doing the talking. Justice Samuel Alito said in dissent that the decision "threatens private speech that the government finds displeasing." (More Texas stories.)