Puzzling case

[Elizabeth Dale]

Well, but what about the license plates that fall somewhere in between live
free or die and GOKATS? Here in Florida, and In SC, and doubtless other
places, car owners have the option of paying extra to get a license plate
that is not a vanity plate per se, but has one of several special messages
permitted by the state. You can get plates that have the logos of all the
public universities, for example, a plate that says something to the effect
of support education, there is an environmental message or two, and so on.
There is also, as I recall, one that says something like Cherish Life (I
don't think it says Pro-Life, but that is, in theory at least, the idea).

Again, just to be clear, this is a slogan the government puts on the plate,
but each driver has the right to decide to pay extra to get that plate, or
not (or to get the generic plate) so there is plenty of choice involved. Is
that really the most relevant issue in deciding whether these are
government sponsored messages? And if they are government messages, does it
matter if the message is small p political (ie, "Keep the flag [that is,
the confederate flag] flying") or is arguably religious, if only to the
extent of saying something like In God We Trust?
Elizabeth Dale
Assistant Professor, US Legal History
Department of History, University of Florida
PO Box 117320
Gainesville FL 32611

edale at history.ufl.edu
http://plaza.ufl.edu/edale