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Choose Life Plate Wins in NY The Alliance Defense Fund brought the case, The Children First Foundation v. Martinez, in August 2004 on behalf of The Children First Foundation (CFF) after the New York DMV “rejected the foundation’s license plate design,” according to an ADF press release. CFF is a New York non-profit that raises and “funds awareness to promote and support adoption as a positive choice for women with unwanted pregnancies or newborns in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. CFF restricts its donations to non-profit organizations that receive no government funding, provide services to pregnant women, and do not perform or refer for abortion.” In his decision, Judge McCurn ruled: “As this court has found, the sole basis for Defendants’ denial of CFF’s license plate application was viewpoint discrimination. Accordingly, the court finds that Defendants’ restriction was both discrimination based on viewpoint and unreasonable.” CFF had applied for a custom “Choose Life” license plate through the state DMV, as allowed by law, in December 2001. The DMV denied CFF’s application for a specialty license plate, citing “‘the State of New York’s policy not to promote or display politically sensitive messages’ on its license plates due to the potential for ‘road rage.’” In subsequent communications with CFF, the DMV stated that the “Choose Life” plated was rejected because “the message is patently offensive and could provoke outrage from members of the public.” In the lawsuit, ADF argued that the DMV violated the First and Fourteenth Amendment in denying the “Choose Life” plate. Thirty states, including New York and North Carolina, have approved “Choose Life” specialty license plates. The North Carolina General Assembly approved the plate for North Carolina motorists just this past summer. More than the required 300 applications for the plate have already been received.Related resources: Copyright © 2012. North Carolina Family Policy Council. All rights reserved.
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