In December and January, Elon Law Professor Scott Gaylord explored First Amendment issues in radio and television news interviews across the country, including an interview on WUNC's The State of Things about free speech and license plates. He also authored the article, "Government Speech and North Carolina's 'Choose Life' License Plate," published Dec. 21 by Jurist, the web-based legal news service.
In December, Gaylord was interviewed on news radio programs broadcast in California (KBRT), Idaho (KBAR), Missouri (KZIM), Montana (KBLL), North Carolina (WTKF), Virginia (WRVA), and West Virginia (WTZE), regarding a federal district court case that struck down North Carolina’s “Choose Life” specialty license plate.
In January, Gaylord spoke in the same subject on WUNC radio’s The State of Things. Click here to listen to the WUNC interview.
In these interviews, Gaylord discussed the North Carolina case as well as other recent challenges to Texas’s denial of a plate that included a confederate flag and Georgia’s consideration of an “In God we trust” plate. At issue in these cases is whether specialty license plates, which have been authorized in states across the country, represent private speech or qualify as government speech under the United States Supreme Court’s “newly minted” government speech doctrine. According to Gaylord, recent decisions of the Supreme Court appear to be inconsistent with the federal district court’s order enjoining North Carolina’s “Choose Life” license plate.
Also in December, Gaylord provided analysis on WGHP Fox 8 News relating to the national health care case that the United States Supreme Court will hear in March 2012. Gaylord also evaluated the constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance policy of the Winston-Salem Forsyth County School for WFMY News 2 and analyzed the Free Exercise issues implicated by a recent lawsuit challenging North Carolina’s role in licensing and regulating marriages for News 14 Carolina.
Click here for a report on Gaylord’s article, “Government Speech and North Carolina’s ‘Choose Life” License Plate,” published Dec. 21 by Jurist, the web-based legal news service.