12/02/02 Supreme Court Victory

December 2, 2002 (from:  The Pro-Life Infonet <infonet@prolifeinfo.org>)

Subject:   Supreme Court Gives Final Victory to Choose Life Plates
Source:   Associated Press; December 2, 2002

Supreme Court Gives Final Victory to Choose Life Plates

Washington, DC -- The Supreme Court ended an effort to block specialty car license plates in Louisiana with the slogan ``Choose Life.''

Louisiana is one of seven states that have authorized such pro-life car tags, and abortion supporters argued that the state was giving a forum only to pro-life views.

Justices on Monday refused without comment to review the tag opponents' appeal.

In 2000, a federal judge had stopped the state from distributing the plates, which have a picture of a baby wrapped in a blanket in the beak of a brown pelican, the state bird. But earlier this year an appeals court
said the pro-abortion groups did not have standing to sue.

Lawsuits have been filed in other states over the plates, contending they violate the separation of church and state. Besides Louisiana, states with ``Choose Life'' plates include Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Oklahoma and South Carolina. Leaders in other states are considering offering them.

Louisiana charges an extra $25 for the special tags to raise money for organizations that counsel expectant mothers about adoption. A council of pro-life groups advises the state on how to spend the money.

Simon Heller with the pro-abortion Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, representing the plate opponents, told justices in court papers that the ``scheme creates a `symbolic union' of the state of Louisiana with fundamentalist Christian organizations'' and could promote religion.

Roy Mongrue Jr., an assistant attorney general in Louisiana, said that the legislature may use license plates to encourage pregnant women to consider adoption and other alternatives to abortion. ``The state, acting through ... its democratic process, has the right to speak this message,'' he wrote in court papers.

An attorney who brought a similar challenge in South Carolina says it's not the final word on the matter. The development "is obviously disappointing, but not necessarily precedent," said Peter Murphy, a Columbia attorney representing the pro-abortion plaintiffs challenging South Carolina's plans to issue similar Choose Life plates.

During last month's Charleston hearing, Tracey Green, an assistant deputy state attorney general, argued the South Carolina plates represent government speech "and communicate the state's oft-expressed preference for child birth over abortion."

He also argued Planned Parenthood has no standing because it hasn't really shown the state would deny them a corresponding "Choose Choice" plate.

Senior U.S. District Judge William Bertelsman is expected to rule around the first of next year.
The case is Henderson v. Stalder, 02-523.

Louisiana citizens who want to obtain the plate can get more information at
http://www.chooselifela.org.