It's incredible that this even had to go to Federal court.
Here is the original news Great News! "Choose Life" license plates approved in New York
Here is a statement from one of the lead attorney's.
NY ‘Choose Life’ license plates vindicated
Federal court orders state to allow pro-adoption plates as part of decision in 7-year-old ADF lawsuit
Wednesday, November 09, 2011
ADF attorney sound bite: Jeff Shafer
ALBANY, N.Y. — A federal court ruled Tuesday that the state of New York violated the First Amendment when it rejected a pro-adoption group’s application to sponsor a “Choose Life” specialty license plate as part of a state program. Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed the lawsuit on behalf of The Children First Foundation in 2004.
“Pro-adoption organizations have the right to a specialty license plate on the same terms as any other organization, and the court’s decision affirms that,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Jeff Shafer. “The state is not authorized to censor The Children First Foundation for its life-affirming viewpoint, but it has gotten away with doing so for 10 years now since the application was first submitted.”
The court issued an order for the state to approve the plate application but placed the order on hold until any appeals are completed.
“It is undisputed that CFF complied with the requirements for entry into the program…,” the court wrote. “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….”
In addition, the court found that “New York has run afoul of the First Amendment by giving the Commissioner unbridled discretion to engage in viewpoint discrimination.”
The New York DMV had rejected the foundation’s license plate design of a crayon drawing of a yellow sun behind the faces of two smiling children, claiming a significant segment of the population would consider the design “patently offensive” because it also included the words “Choose Life.”
ADF attorneys filed The Children First Foundation v. Martinez with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York in August 2004. In March 2006, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled the lawsuit could go forward after the district court denied the state’s motion to dismiss the case. Malta attorney Jim Trainor, one of nearly 2,100 attorneys in the ADF alliance, is currently serving as local counsel.
ADF represented The Children First Foundation in a similar lawsuit in New Jersey. In that case, the state eventually agreed to approve the “Choose Life” plate after the foundation won reinstatement of its lawsuit at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit.
“Pro-adoption organizations have the right to a specialty license plate on the same terms as any other organization, and the court’s decision affirms that,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Jeff Shafer. “The state is not authorized to censor The Children First Foundation for its life-affirming viewpoint, but it has gotten away with doing so for 10 years now since the application was first submitted.”
The court issued an order for the state to approve the plate application but placed the order on hold until any appeals are completed.
“It is undisputed that CFF complied with the requirements for entry into the program…,” the court wrote. “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….”
In addition, the court found that “New York has run afoul of the First Amendment by giving the Commissioner unbridled discretion to engage in viewpoint discrimination.”
The New York DMV had rejected the foundation’s license plate design of a crayon drawing of a yellow sun behind the faces of two smiling children, claiming a significant segment of the population would consider the design “patently offensive” because it also included the words “Choose Life.”
ADF attorneys filed The Children First Foundation v. Martinez with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York in August 2004. In March 2006, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled the lawsuit could go forward after the district court denied the state’s motion to dismiss the case. Malta attorney Jim Trainor, one of nearly 2,100 attorneys in the ADF alliance, is currently serving as local counsel.
ADF represented The Children First Foundation in a similar lawsuit in New Jersey. In that case, the state eventually agreed to approve the “Choose Life” plate after the foundation won reinstatement of its lawsuit at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit.
And here is the Alliance Defense Fund statement. If you hit the link, there's more on their website - we have their press release below the link.
After seven years of litigation, The Children First Foundation and their lawyers from the Alliance Defense Fund, specialists in cases of religious freedom and First Amendment issues, have finally received a ruling in Federal Court stating that the state of New York had unconstitutionally blocked the issuing of CFF's "Choose Life" license plate. The decision comes almost one year after CFF and ADF won a similar ruling against the state of New Jersey which now has the "Choose Life" plate on the road.
On November 8, 2011, a Federal District Court in New York State ruled that the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles must issue CFF's "Choose Life" license plate. This decision caps seven years of legal battles in which CFF and their attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund, who are legal experts in First Amendment cases, have won every legal battle in this federal lawsuit since its filing back in 2004.
We urge all New York State citizens who believe in Freedom of Speech to now contact Governor Andrew Cuomo and respectfully ask the Governor to approve the New York "Choose Life" license plate without further delay. The Governor may be reached by telephone by calling (518) 474-8370 or by email at http://www.governor.ny.gov/contact/GovernorContactForm.php.
Blocking the approval of the New York "Choose Life" license plate since 2002 has put New York in the minority of states, given that a solid majority of 28 other states have already approved pro-adoption "Choose Life" plates. Last year, CFF won a similar Federal lawsuit against New Jersey in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals over that state's attempts to block the plate. According to an Associated Press article, New Jersey's Motor Vehicles Commission spokesman Mike Horan explained that New Jersey decided to allow the approval of the New Jersey "Choose Life" license plate to avoid further legal expenses. In 2009, when then Governor Timothy Kaine of Virginia approved the Virginia "Choose Life" license plate, Gov. Kaine issued a statement that he was approving his state's plate "... (b)ecause Virginians -- like all Americans -- regard freedom of expression among our highest values."
We here at CFF are very happy with this verdict along with two other verdicts in New York courts over the years including the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals that show very clearly the violation of The Children First Foundation's freedom of speech. We sincerely hope that Governor Cuomo will follow New Jersey's lead from last year and cease the senseless use of taxpayer money to fight these cases where the state's position is clearly unconstitutional. The DMV moratorium that has been in place for almost six years against new plates, imposed in order to stop the "Choose Life" plate, has also blocked such other plates as the "9/11 Remembrance Plate" and the "Cure Childhood Cancer" plate. In this time of budgetary crises, it is time for New York's government to stop wasting taxpayer money and start earning money from the sale of popular specialty plates. We urge the approval of CFF's plate here in New York that will help promote and fund the positive choice of adoption as CFF is now doing with its plates in New Jersey and Connecticut.
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