A federal judge said yes to Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring’s request to vacate an order requiring the issuance of license plates featuring the Confederate flag – meaning drivers will have to turn in those rebel flag emblems.
“This ruling will allow Virginia to remove a symbol of oppression and injustice from public display on its license plates,” Herring said, the Associated Press reported. “Virginia state government does not have to and will not endorse such a divisive symbol.”
Gov. Terry McAuliffe challenged the legality of the emblems on the state’s license plates in June, after the Supreme Court ruled Texas authorities could in fact bar the image from plates there, as WND reported.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans fought Virginia’s challenge, but the judge found in favor of the state.
“When the Supreme Court speaks, district courts must listen,” federal Judge Jackson Kiser wrote in the decision, AP reported. “In light of the ruling in [the Texas case], the primary rationale for the 2001 judgment and injunction in this case is no longer good law. Specialty license plates represent the government’s speech and the Commonwealth may choose, consonant with the First Amendment, the message it wishes to convey on those plates. The Commonwealth’s rationale for singling out SCV for different treatment is no longer relevant. According to the Supreme Court, the Commonwealth is free to treat SCV differently from all other specialty groups. Because the underlying injunction violates that right, I have no choice but to dissolve it.”