More States Adopt "Choose Life" License Plates.

"Choose Life" license plates can now be offered to motorists in 14 states, as appeals courts recently allowed the plates to be sold in Louisiana and Tennessee. Proceeds from the sale of the license plates go to help crisis pregnancy centers and adoption assistance groups.

Motorists pay an extra fee each year, often about $25, to display the license plates. The other states that offer the specialty plates are Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, and South Dakota, according to the Associated Press (AP). The tags will also be available soon in Kentucky. Pro-life groups continue to work in many other states to bring the "Choose Life" message to their cars.

The most recent court case was decided by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals March 17. The American Civil Liberties Union argued that Tennessee's plates violated the First Amendment because the state offers no pro-abortion tags. The license plates "use state dollars to promote one viewpoint while silencing another," ACLU of Tennessee Executive Directory Hedy Weinberg told The Tennesseean.

The appeal court disagreed. It held that there is nothing in the First Amendment that requires government-sanctioned speech to be "viewpoint neutral."

"Government can express public policy views by enlisting private volunteers to disseminate its message," wrote Judge John M. Rogers for the 21 ...