That is how much money Florida residents have voluntarily contributed to adoption service providers over the last decade through the purchase of the “Choose Life” specialty license plate the State of Florida offers to its residents.

Following Florida’s lead, 24 additional states have “adopted” the “Choose Life” license plate as a purchase option for their residents.   Legislative initiatives to create “Choose Life” license plates are moving in another 21 states on top of this.

However, as seemingly is the case on so many issues, Illinois is the bad example.

I founded the Illinois Choose Life organization in July 2002 to bring these plates to Illinois in support of the amazing adoption agencies, crisis pregnancy centers, and homes for unwed mothers that work tirelessly to find and to foster loving, nurturing homes for children.

Eight years later, I am still surprised that such an obviously redeeming mission could be so beset by politics.

We tried for three years, in legislative session after legislative session, to get a simple up or down vote on the “Choose Life” plate and, despite ever-increasing numbers of sponsors, each year our bill was bottled up in committee by the powers-that-be in Springfield.

With more than 50 specialty plates in circulation in Illinois, it was clear that certain legislators simply didn’t like our message which is an unjust abridgment of the First Amendment rights of Illinois residents.  We took our case to federal court and prevailed at the district court level only to have that verdict overturned on appeal after the Secretary of State and Attorney General convinced the General Assembly to change the law with their appeal pending.  Of course, that change in the law did nothing but provide thinly veiled cover to block the “Choose Life” plate and continue the state’s practice of viewpoint discrimination.

As Andrew Carnegie once said, “Anything in life worth having is worth working for.”  And so our work continues in earnest.

According to our estimates, within five years of availability, the “Choose Life” license plate would generate more than $1 million annually for adoption service providers in Illinois.  This “Choose Life” plate is worth having and we are going to keep working for it.

There is reason for optimism, particularly if we get the leadership changes in Springfield we need in November.

As such, we are re-launching our “Choose Life” license plate petition effort.  And I’m asking for your help to reach our goal of 25,000 signatures by January 1.

Please obtain the petition form here (PDF format).  Feel free to make copies.  Please note that it is critical to obtain, if possible, both (1) the signer’s email address so we can communicate with them, send e-updates; and (2) the signer’s indication that they would purchase the “Choose Life” plate if it was made available (check the box).

I am very thankful that the Illinois Family Institute has signed on to help us with this endeavor.  The dedication of IFI’s staff and volunteers is truly a blessing for our initiative.

Please do what you can to gather signatures and spread the word within your circles of influence—church, civic/philanthropic organizations, local crisis pregnancy centers (the beneficiaries of this effort), family, friends and neighbors.

In addition to the 25,000 signatures, we want to get signatures from all 102 counties in Illinois to demonstrate the broad support and sizeable demand that exists for “Choose Life” license plates.

Christ has asked us to "Go out to all nations and preach the Gospel." Certainly the Gospel of Life would be at the top of His list, a noble and satisfying effort.

Thank you in advance for your consideration and support of bringing the “Choose Life” specialty license plate to Illinois in service of mission to see that every child in Illinois grows up in a loving home.

May God bless you and may He bless our effort.

Sincerely,

Jim Finnegan
President, Illinois Choose Life
(847) 526-1152
jimpfinn@aol.com

P.S. Our goal for the “Choose Life” plate petition effort is 25,000 signatures by January 1. Again, please see the petition form here (PDF format).  Feel free to make copies.  Please note that it is critical to obtain, if possible, both (1) the signer’s email address so we can communicate with them, send e-updates; and (2) the signer’s indication that they would purchase the “Choose Life” plate if it was made available (check the box).

P.P.S. There will be costs involved in this effort and if you are able, please consider making a tax deductible financial contribution to “Illinois Choose Life”, 460 East Lake Shore Dr., Barrington, IL 60010.

In July 2002, a committee was formed to apply for a “Choose Life” (CL) specialty license plate, to raise funds to benefit adoption assistance as yet another choice for a woman in what has been described as a crisis pregnancy. In December 2002, March 2003, and March 2004, we traveled to the state capitol to present our bill to authorize the CL plate. For the first time a proposed specialty plate was given to the Health and Human Services Committee (Chairman Barack Obama), not the usual Transportation Committee. It became the first specialty plate denied by the Secretary of State in Illinois. As another first, this was the only time a specialty plate was not given an up or down vote by the legislators, but simply buried in subcommittees.

We sued the state on 6-4-06, charging that denial of the CL plate constituted viewpoint discrimination and a standardless policy to determine who gets a specialty plate, in violation of the First Amendment. On 1-22-07, Judge David Coar, of the federal district court here in Chicago, issued a favorable decision, ruling that the state’s actions were indeed constitutionally offensive viewpoint discrimination. But the state appealed and in the meantime, the General Assembly passed a new law, confirming that General Assembly approval was required for every new specialty plate, and after Governor Blagojevich signed the law, the three judge panel of the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against us, reversing our earlier win. We then asked all the Seventh Circuit Judges to reconsider the panel’s decision (“en banc” review by the entire 7th circuit) but this was denied.

On April 16th 2008, our attorneys petitioned in Washington, D.C. for a writ of certiorari, asking that the case be heard again by the nine Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. Their decision to not hear our case was released on October 5th. The Supreme Court takes only a few cases every year (roughly only one out of every hundred twenty petitions is granted in recent years!), keeping its eye out for cases such as ours where a variety of different, arguably conflicting decisions have been handed down by lower courts, so that the Justices can function as umpires straightening out the differences and conflicts as to what the law means. But they decided to stay silent on the Choose Life front.

We had felt our chances were good to get a decision from them due to the fact that across the United States there has been a real potpourri of varying legal decisions relating to CL specialty plates, with different outcomes depending on locale and legislation and variable views of lower federal court Judges about many strands of First Amendment legal doctrine. For example, are specialty plates government speech, endorsed by the state, or private speech in a public forum as to which the state is merely a “content-neutral gatekeeper”? Are specialty plates a public forum, a limited public forum, or a nonpublic forum? Was Illinois’ stated justification for suppressing the CL plate – that it banned all expression relating to ‘reproductive rights,’ and not just the CL position – a transparent cover for viewpoint discrimination, or content-based discrimination lacking a compelling justification, or rather a merely ‘reasonable’ basis for limiting access to a nonpublic forum?

This brings us to where we are at this time. In simplest terms, we do not plan on quitting. We hope with some legislative changes in the state capitol, we could again file our bill, in particular that now the state has changed its legislation to require approval from the legislators in Springfield for any new plate. Before the Secretary of State (Jesse White) had this decision. It would be nice to finally get an up or down vote from our politicians on the Choose Life Adoption aid plate.

There is also a slight chance of our filing a "petition for rehearing" in the Supreme Court, asking the Justices to change their minds. We do not know how many votes we received to hear our case in the first place (four were needed to get the case heard, while five votes would be needed to win). We may have gotten three and hope for a fourth if a rehearing were to be granted. We will consider this option by asking respected First Amendment scholars if this long shot is worth the effort and cost. The main message I leave you with today is that we are not packing our bags and going home. With the Good Lord's help and direction, I still feel we can prevail.

Stay in touch. Please consider contacting our lead attorney Thomas Brejcha at the Thomas More Society, 29 South LaSalle Street, Suite 440 Chicago, Illinois 60603. 312-782-1680. Thank Tom for his undying faith and effort. If the Spirit moves you, please also consider sending The Thomas More Society a donation in thanks for their 7 year pro bono effort on behalf of Life and Adoption here in Illinois. Feel free to contact me at any time for further questions or how you too can help.

Peace and God's blessings,
Jim Finnegan
President
Illinois Choose Life
460 East Lake Shore Drive
Barrington, Illinois 60010
847-526-1152