South Carolina's Contentious License Plates
The Legislature Clearly Violates the United States Constitution
In June of 2008, the South Carolina General Assembly passed a law that requires the production of license plates with a Christian theme. Specifically, the plates feature the words “I Believe” accompanied with a yellow cross against a stained-glass window.
The legislative act became law when the governor allowed the bill to pass without his signature. Because of that, the state is facing a lawsuit that everyone could see coming for miles. Even Florida, which is controlled by a Republican legislature, has already declined to pass a law that would have issued an “I Believe” plate. Legislators—on both sides of the aisle—were concerned that the law was unconstitutional.
The Constitution, however, must not mean as much to the South Carolina legislature. In blatant disregard for the United States Constitution and its own state constitution, legislators voted unanimously for the issuance of the license plate. This presents many problems, not the least of which is that South Carolina taxpayers are now forced to fund a lawsuit precipitated by a useless and meaningless legislative act. A quick discussion of the law that the legislature violated begins and ends with the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
The religion clause of the Amendment states: “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” The first part of this sentence is the Establishment Clause. It means, in essence, that no government in the United States can enact a law that endorses or favors any religion. The government must be neutral toward religion; it cannot favor one over the other, nor can it favor religion over non-religion. It must be neutral in every sense of the word.
This act from South Carolina is anything but neutral. It is authorizing the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to issue a plate that is clearly religious in tone. More specifically, it is authorizing the DMV to issue a plate that is of one particular religion—Christianity. Additionally, the legislature is authorizing the DMV to issue the plate at the exclusion of all other religions. No matter how the state twists it, having a license plate that reads ‘I Believe” is an endorsement of Christianity and thus, violates the Establishment Clause.
Despite the fact that this law will get struck down (the case is pending in federal district court), this is at least a good lesson on why we choose to keep government and religion separate in this country. Imagine for a moment if a state issued license plates that read “I Don’t Believe in God” or “Allah is God. Needless to say, there would be a massive uproar. One would be an endorsement of non-religion, and one would be an endorsement of Islam, both of which—just like the “I Believe” plate—violate the Constitution.
And finally, perhaps it is worth noting the real reason that the South Carolina legislature enacted this law. It is assuredly an analysis with cynical overtones but unfortunately true nonetheless.
These legislators, despite what many people think, are not stupid. They know what the Constitution says and many of them went to law school. So why do they pass such laws that obviously run afoul of the Constitution? In one word, the answer is “votes.”
Those who introduce and sponsor such bills are driven and funded heavily by religious right lobbyists. They want to go back to their constituents and be able to say that they did what they could to get religion back in public life. Then, when a court strikes the law down, they can rail against evil, “Godless judges” who are usurping their authority.
If that analysis seems a bit too harsh, consider this. If it were so important for these legislators to have some emblem or slogan of Christianity placed on their vehicles, they could have bought a “Honk for Jesus” bumper sticker for $1.99 and saved everyone a lot of time and money.
