Tuesday, February 11, 2014

4th Circuit Court of Appeals: "Not So Fast There, North Carolina"

The otherwise very conservative 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond has ruled that the Republican majority in the North Carolina General Assembly cannot legislate anti-abortion license plates without also offering pro-choice license plates. The 4th Circuit panel ruled unanimously.

A lower U.S. district court had already ruled that the "Choose Life" license plates were an unconstitutional governmental promotion of a religious point of view.

Said the ACLU lawyer who argued the case, "As the court reiterated today, the government cannot create an avenue of expression for one side of a contentious political issue while denying an equal opportunity to citizens with the opposite view. North Carolina’s one-sided license plate scheme constituted blatant viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment."

Who's keeping the box score of how much crap passed by the NCGA has already been overturned by the courts?

1 comment:

brotherdoc said...

In answer to your last question: I hope someone like the N&O, or Progress NC, or some other such organization is doing what you ask. We need to see a tally of the mounting number of suits (filed, resolved, or still in adjudication) challenging the recent laws passed/signed since the 2010 takeover. It would seem ALEC-inspired laws have been appearing across the country and meeting more or less resistance.For example Ohio's state assembly is considering now a voter suppression law that sounds a lot like the one we have in NC. Where did the original come from? Had to be ALEC.