Say Anything Blog

Because specialized license plates are of the utmost importance for this nation’s civil liberties.

MIAMI - Florida drivers can order more than 100 specialty license plates celebrating everything from manatees to the Miami Heat, but one now under consideration would be the first in the nation to explicitly promote a specific religion.

The Florida Legislature is considering a specialty plate with a design that includes a Christian cross, a stained-glass window and the words “I Believe.”

Rep. Edward Bullard, the plate’s sponsor, said people who “believe in their college or university” or “believe in their football team” already have license plates they can buy. The new design is a chance for others to put a tag on their cars with “something they believe in,” he said.

Sounds reasonable to me, but the ACLU definitely isn’t on board:

If the plate is approved, Florida would become the first state to have a license plate featuring a religious symbol that’s not part of a college logo. Approval would almost certainly face a court challenge.

The problem with the state manufacturing the plate is that it “sends a message that Florida is essentially a Christian state” and, second, gives the “appearance that the state is endorsing a particular religious preference,” said Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.

The State of Florida has no official religion, but looking at demographic statistics it’s clear that Florida is, in fact, “essentially a Christian state.”

And while the ACLU may want to insinuate that offering a specialized license plate for Christians is an official endorsement of that religion, but really given that this is a specialty plate to be selected as an option by citizens it’s really no more of an endorsement than the Miami Heat plate is an official endorsement of the basketball team.

The solution for this is for Florida to make specialty plates available for the other religions in the state, and one for atheists too.  Problem solved, though really they wouldn’t have to go that far.  Just so long as specialty plates for other religions weren’t opposed you could hardly say that Christians are getting any sort of special treatment.