July 2, 2015 4:01 PM

SCOTUS Confederate flag license plate ruling could cause myriad problems, expert says

For instance, lawmakers might decide a pro-life license plate is acceptable one session and the next session the body could strike it down in favor of a pro-choice plate.

The U.S. Supreme Court made the right decision when it issued its opinion that Texas could block a Confederate flag license plate, but the legal argument in the opinion could have been much stronger, says a UC Irvine law professor. Such an argument could produce myriad problems, not the least of which is that a partisan legislature could provide conflicting approvals based on ideology. For instance, lawmakers might decide a pro-life license plate is acceptable one session and the next session the body could strike it down in favor of a pro-choice plate.

Vikram Amar’s opinion, published in a legal blog, could become relevant in Texas circles now that the Sons of the Confederate Veterans have suggested submitting a new design for a specialty license plate. It also has indirect implications in the case of Confederate flags, war heroes and even the Ten Commandments monument that now sits on the Capitol lawn.

Amar said Justice Stephen Breyer’s opinion in Walker v Texas Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans, Inc., is written broadly in the context of government speech. Roughly, Breyer’s opinion states the specialty license plate may be construed as government speech and limited as such. Thus, government can say “no” to the license plate just as it can say yes or no to the writing on lottery tickets, Amar said.

By Kimberly Reeves