A federal court has ordered the state of New York to allow "Choose Life" license plates. It stopped short of ordering immediate implementation in case the state decides to appeal the decision.
The ruling comes in a seven-year-old lawsuit by the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF). Lawyers for the group filed the lawsuit on behalf of The Children First Foundation in 2004.
The DMV had rejected the foundation’s license plate design of a crayon drawing of a yellow sun behind the faces of two smiling children. The ADA says the state claimed a significant segment of the population would consider the design “patently offensive” because it also included the words “Choose Life.”
“Pro-adoption organizations have the right to a specialty license plate on the same terms as any other organization, and the court’s decision affirms that,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Jeff Shafer. “The state is not authorized to censor The Children First Foundation for its life-affirming viewpoint, but it has gotten away with doing so for 10 years now since the application was first submitted.”
The DMV put a moratorium in place for almost six years against new plates because of the legal battle over the "Choose Life" plate. That has blocked other special plates such as a e "9/11 Remembrance Plate" and the "Cure Childhood Cancer" plate, according to the group.
The ADF is a legal alliance of Christian attorneys. It represented The Children First Foundation in a similar lawsuit in New Jersey. In that case, the state eventually agreed to approve the “Choose Life” plate.
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