SCOTUS Upholds Confederate Plate Ban; Dissent Says State Campus Speech at Risk

Texas can ban Confederate-themed specialty license plates because its plates are government speech, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 18 (Walker v. Tex. Div., Sons of Confederate Veterans, Inc., U.S., 14-144, 6/18/15).

Texas’s specialty license plate designs constitute government speech not subject to scrutiny under the First Amendment, the 5-4 decision by Justice Stephen G. Breyer found.

A professor who teaches constitutional law described the case as a close call based on the evolving role of license plates. The ban may be at the limit of what Breyer would consider to be government rather than private speech, he ...