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Court to review Confederate flag on license plates [SCOTUS]
AP ^ | 12/05/2014 | Mark Sherman

Posted on 12/05/2014 12:28:05 PM PST by GIdget2004

The Supreme Court is taking on a free speech case over a proposed license plate in Texas that would feature the Confederate battle flag.

The case involves the government's ability to choose among the political messages it allows drivers to display on state-issued license plates.

The justices said Friday they will review a lower court ruling in favor of the Texas Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The group is seeking a specialty plate with its logo bearing the battle flag, similar to plates issued by several other states that were part of the Confederacy.

The case will be argued in March.

A state motor vehicle board rejected the application because of concerns the Confederate flag would offend many Texans who believe the flag is a racially charged symbol of repression. But a panel of federal appeals court judges ruled that the board's decision violated the group's First Amendment rights.

Texas offers more than 350 specialty plates, the group said in its court filing. They include plates that say "Choose Life," ''God Bless Texas," ''Fight Terrorism," as well as others in support of Boy Scouts, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, blood donations, pro sports teams and colleges.

The state said in its Supreme Court appeal that the decision to reject the Sons of Confederate Veterans' license plate was not discrimination because the motor vehicle board had not approved a license plate expressing any view about the Confederacy or the battle flag.

Other federal appeals courts have come to differing conclusions on the issue, the state said.

(Excerpt) Read more at bigstory.ap.org ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: Texas
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To: GIdget2004

Texans are NOT pledging allegiance to the Confederate flag. I wish people would mind their own business and leave me alone to mind mine. If you or anyone else finds the Confederate flag, which is a part of our history, offensive, then learn to accept it. We’re not going to change our history or remove it from “Six Flags over Texas” because it offends you.

If somebody wanted to fly the Nazi flag or some other flag that was not part of our history, I and others might find that offensive if displayed in the wrong context.

If you bruise easily or are easily offended, don’t come to Texas.


41 posted on 12/05/2014 1:42:09 PM PST by Texicanus (Texas, it's a whole 'nother country.)
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To: WayneS; All
"A “progressive” supreme court DECIDED that the 14th amendment did all that."

Would you mind volunteering a few sentences to clarify what you think that the Supremes decided about 14A? The idea of 14A applying constituitonal “privileges and immunites” to the states is based not only on the wording of Section 1 of 14A, but also on the official post-ratification clarification of 14A in the congressional record by John Bingham, Bingham the main author of Section 1.

42 posted on 12/05/2014 1:43:16 PM PST by Amendment10
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To: GIdget2004
"I wish I was in the land of cotton, where old times there are not forgotten, look away, look away, look away Dixie Land...."

5.56mm

43 posted on 12/05/2014 1:45:35 PM PST by M Kehoe
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To: SkyDancer

I will take your [non]response as verification that you, like I, cannot explain how someone who already resides in a particular place can “invade” it.


44 posted on 12/05/2014 1:49:16 PM PST by WayneS (Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos.)
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To: SkyDancer
The Civil War (or the war of Secession) was about states rights not slavery - Lincoln made it into that.

The War of Northern Aggression was about states rights, the primary one of which was the right to own slaves.

45 posted on 12/05/2014 1:51:40 PM PST by JimRed (Excise the cancer before it kills us; feed & water the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS NOW & FOREVER!)
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To: JimRed

That I know and have posted that very idea long time ago when this issue was brought up. Every so often someone comes along and raises it again like they were some Civil War veteran. It’s over. The Union survived. Some folks simply won’t let it go.


46 posted on 12/05/2014 2:00:15 PM PST by SkyDancer (I Was Told Nobody Is Perfect But Yet, Here I Am)
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To: WayneS

The War of Secession is over. I suggest you get over it too.


47 posted on 12/05/2014 2:00:50 PM PST by SkyDancer (I Was Told Nobody Is Perfect But Yet, Here I Am)
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To: Amendment10

With no commentary on whether or not I personally agree with them, here a few scotus cases which “strengthened” the 14th amendment as regards the states:

Lochner v. New York (17 Apr 1905)
Gitlow v. New York (08 June 1925)
Brown v. Board of Education (17 May 1954)
Gideon v. Wainwright (18 Mar 1963)
Griswold v. Connecticut (07 Jun 1965)
Loving v. Virginia (12 Jun 1967)
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (26 Jun 1978)

I do apologize, though, I should have said “progressive” supreme courtS (plural)

By the way, until the early 20th century, it appears most scotus decisions held that the 14th did NOT limit the states in the same way it limited the feds:

The Slaughter-House Cases (14 Apr 1873)
Plessy v. Ferguson (18 May 1896)


48 posted on 12/05/2014 2:04:35 PM PST by WayneS (Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos.)
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To: GIdget2004

the Confederate Flag - Correlates with States Right not anything else. What’s next the georgia Secession Flag is a big red star on a white background. So does this have to go to. like the Ole Miss has the rebel with white hair does that have to go too,

In the north the Badgers, the Wolverines, the Gophers, the hawkeyes buckeyes and Cornhuskers are college sports names. So do these names signify someting wrong - badgers gophers and wolverines are based on moning in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan, hawkeyes is mythical for Iowa (what do you want to known as the pig state - becareful pig stye) Ohio because of a tree with chestnuts - buckeyes and cornhuskers because Nebraska is the corn and grain state.

So will the Yankees have to give up their name as it is derogatory to many from the south. If you are north of the Mason- Dixon Line you are a Damn Yankee, all other states of the Union were Yankees. Political Correctness needs to stop


49 posted on 12/05/2014 2:06:41 PM PST by hondact200 (Candor dat viribos alas (sincerity gives wings to strength) and Nil desperandum (never despair))
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To: GIdget2004
there was a SCOTUS case about 40 years ago about a Commie peacenik in New Hampshire who was offended by the state's motto (Live Free Or Die) being on their license plates that he obscured the motto and was arrested as a result.Long story short SCOTUS ruled in the Commie's favor.In light of that ruling I deliberately obsure the motto on the bottom of my state's plates ("The Spirit Of America").

Given this ruling one might think that SCOTUS will allow these plates with the understanding that nobody is being *forced* to display them,as was the case with the New Hampshire Commie.

50 posted on 12/05/2014 2:11:24 PM PST by Gay State Conservative (Jimmy Carter;No Longer The Worst President In My Lifetime)
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To: SkyDancer

I have no great love of the confederacy.

However, I DO have a great deal of respect for SOME of their political ideas and for some of their leaders.

On the other hand, I find it difficult to have much respect for people who simply, and more often than not caustically, dismiss those ideas out of hand and/or show disdain for the brave men who, however misguidedly, fought for those ideas.

Have a nice evening.


51 posted on 12/05/2014 2:12:36 PM PST by WayneS (Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos.)
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To: WayneS

Don’t forget Wooley v. Maynard (SCOTUS 1977),the case I referred to in my previous post.


52 posted on 12/05/2014 2:15:53 PM PST by Gay State Conservative (Jimmy Carter;No Longer The Worst President In My Lifetime)
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To: SkyDancer

I guess it’s open to interpretation, depending on which side of the Mason-Dixon line your ancestors were from. Got it.


53 posted on 12/05/2014 2:17:44 PM PST by Licensed-To-Carry (Every time you vote for a democrat, you put another nail in the coffin of the USA.....)
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To: stevem
"My favorite historical American is U.S. Grant. I also think he's the greatest military man the US ever produced."

The chain of command that I would have liked to have seen would have been:
Army Commander - Robert E. Lee
Corps Commanders - Ulysses S. Grant, Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson, William T. Sherman, and James Longstreet
Overall Cavalry Commander - Philip Sheridan
Cavalry Brigade Commanders - Nathan B. Forrest, James H. Wilson, and John H. Morgan

With Confederate and Union infantry and artillery, we could have ruled the world.

54 posted on 12/05/2014 2:17:49 PM PST by BlueLancer (Pachelbel --- The original one-hit wonder.)
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To: JimRed

The South was peopled largely with Democrats, to further confuse the issue. The Republicanization of the South is a modern trend, a welcome one but one that required leaving behind certain follies.


55 posted on 12/05/2014 2:20:04 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
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To: WayneS

The slave issue was a curse hanging over them, however. By including that in the non negotiables, they doomed themselves morally.


56 posted on 12/05/2014 2:21:32 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
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To: WayneS

Guess you never got involved in the great Civil War debate here. You have a lovely evening also and a Merry Christmas. You’re welcome.


57 posted on 12/05/2014 2:25:35 PM PST by SkyDancer (I Was Told Nobody Is Perfect But Yet, Here I Am)
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To: WayneS; All
Thank you for referencing those 14A-related court cases. There is a problem with many of them imo. Here’s how I explain the problem.

I believe that the post Civil War SCOTUS had properly clarified that the 14th Amendment added no new protections to the Constitution.

“3. The right of suffrage was not necessarily one of the privileges or immunities of citizenship before the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment, and that amendment does not add to these privileges and immunities. It simply furnishes additional guaranty for the protection of such as the citizen already had [emphasis added].” —Minor v. Happersett, 1874.

In fact, the Court’s statement reflects Bingham’s clarification that 14A applied only enumerated protections to the states.

“Mr. Speaker, this House may safely follow the example of the makers of the Constitution and the builders of the Republic, by passing laws for enforcing all the privileges and immunities of the United States as guaranteed by the amended Constitution and expressly enumerated in the Constitution [emphasis added].” — Congressional Globe, House of Representatives, 42nd Congress, 1st Session. (See lower half of third column.)

Also note that the states properly responded to the Supreme Court’s probably unpopular decision in Minor v. Happersett by ratifying the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, effectively giving women the right to vote.

So particularly with respect to Supreme Court cases decided after FDR’s activist justices started to boldly ignore 10th Amendment-protected state sovereignty when they decided Wickard v. Filburn in corrupt Congress’s favor in 1942, activist judges have been wrongly using various clauses in Section 1 of the 14th Amendment as an excuse to “ratify” new “express” rights to the Constitution from the bench, probably to help Constitution-ignoring Democrats and RINOs get elected to office imo.

58 posted on 12/05/2014 2:45:30 PM PST by Amendment10
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To: GIdget2004

But a Saudi or Iranian flag on a license plate would be OK?

Neither nation has much love for America.


59 posted on 12/05/2014 2:58:55 PM PST by 353FMG
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To: SkyDancer
The Civil War (or the war of Secession) was about states rights not slavery - Lincoln made it into that.

Alexander Stephens (Vice President of the Confederacy) would disagree. In what became known as the “Cornerstone Speech,” Stephens argued that the new Confederate government was based upon “the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man.” Stephens vehemently supported the institution of slavery while Lincoln denied being an abolisionist and stated that if he could preserve the union with slavery he would do so.

60 posted on 12/05/2014 3:10:51 PM PST by Chuckster (The longer I live the less I care about what you think.)
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