Free Speech: Texas Can Control What Its License Plates Say. 

Texas offers automobile owners a choice between ordinary and specialty license plates. Those who want the State to issue a particular specialty plate may propose a plate design, comprising a slogan, a graphic, or both. If the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles approves the design, the State will make it available for display on vehicles registered in Texas. The Texas Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans proposed a specialty license plate design featuring a Confederate battle flag. The Board rejected the proposal. The United States Supreme Court was called upon to decide whether the rejection violated the Constitution’s free speech guarantee. In its opinion, the high court notes that license plates comprise “government speech” in that they contain the State name, a vehicle identification number and often messages from a State such as a graphic of a State monument or a State slogan. In (Pleasant Grove City v. Summum (2009) 555 U.S. 460, [129 S.Ct. 1125, 172 L.Ed.2d 853]), the high court held: “The Free Speech Clause restricts government regulation of private speech; it does not regulate government speech.” In the present case, the Supreme Court concluded Texas’s specialty license plate designs constitute government speech, and Texas was entitled t refuse to issue plates featuring the proposed design. (Walker v. Tex. Div., Sons of Confederate Veterans, Inc. (U.S. Sup. Ct.; June 18, 2015) ___U.S.___ [135 S.Ct. 2239, 192 L.Ed.2d 274].)