Open season on Christianity

Federal court says Christian-themed license plates unconstitutional
By Bob Allen
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
COLUMBIA, S.C. (ABP) -- A federal judge ruled Nov. 10 that a South Carolina license plate featuring cross, a stained-glass window and the words "I Believe" violate the constitutionally mandated separation of church and state.

U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie said a 2008 law that sailed through the state Legislature creating the Christian-themed plates "amounts to state endorsement not only of religion in general, but of a specific sect in particular."

A federal judge ruled that a Christian-themed license plate in South Carolina "amounts to state endorsement not only of religion in general, but of a specific sect in particular."

A 57-page ruling by the same judge who previously issued a temporary injunction halting the plate's production last December said the case "presents a textbook example of the need for and continued vitality of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, as applied to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment."

Americans United for Separation of Church in State filed a lawsuit challenging the plates on behalf of three South Carolina pastors, a rabbi and the Hindu American Foundation.

Barry Lynn, AU's executive director, praised the decision. "Government must never be allowed to express favored treatment for one faith over others," Lynn said. That's unconstitutional and un-American."

Supporters of the license plate, initiated by Lt. Gov. André Bauer (R) after a similar effort failed in Florida, said it was an accommodation to Christians, no different than 200 other specialty plates sponsored by organizations like colleges, sororities, the Boy Scouts and even a secular humanist organization.

The judge, however, said unlike the other specialty plates -- where a sponsoring organization pays $4,000 start-up cost to create a plate and finds at least 400 people to buy one -- the "I Believe" tag was a result of a legislative process, and did not go through the normal process in place for approving specialty plates through the Department of Motor Vehicles.

She said the law establishing the tag, which stipulates that it "must" carry the pro-Christian message, "gives the impression that Christianity, as the majority religion, is also the preferred religion and its adherents favored citizens."

A crowd reported as more than 400 people rallied in January at People's Baptist Church in Greer, S.C., in support of the "I Believe" license tag. Speakers included the lieutenant governor who first introduced the legislation allowing the plate.

"There is free speech for every group in this state besides Christians," Bauer said, according to a report in the South Carolina Baptist Courier. "Every citizen has the right to free speech in this country. I don't understand why witnessing in public is considered unconstitutional. You don't even have to be a Christian to believe everyone deserves the freedom of speech."