Return of the “I Believe” Plates
Religion Clause reports that South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster has issued a ruling that clears the way for a non-profit group to have the infamous “I Believe” Christian licence plates produced.
The new “I Believe” design.
“Nine months after a federal judge barred the state from making legislatively approved plates with the religious message, Attorney General Henry McMaster says a similar plate designed by a nonprofit group is legal. The plate under review at the Department of Motor Vehicles reads http://www.IBELIEVEsc.net along the top. It features a golden sunrise and on the left, three crosses symbolizing the site where Jesus was crucified . The nonprofit group applied for the plates in February under state law that allows private groups to create specialty plates, if they pay a $4,000 deposit or collect at least 400 prepaid orders before production. It officially changed its name to the website address, in hopes of meeting new DMV rules that require tags bear the sponsoring group’s name.”
The original “I Believe” plates were ruled unconstitutional due to the fact that they were sponsored by the South Carolina legislature, creating the impression of a state-sponsored religion. The DMV has yet to decide if these new plates are indeed legal.
This entire license plate case has been haunted by modern Paganism. McMaster released a campaign video referencing the famous Great Falls Darla Wynne case, in which a Wiccan won a court battle against sectarian government prayer. In the video McMaster vows to fight for prayers to Jesus, and he further proved his commitment to Christian sectarianism by attending pro-plate Christian rallies. Meanwhile, U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie, who ruled that the plates were unconstitutional, was also one of the judges to find in Darla Wynne’s favor during her many court battles. In addition, State Sen. Yancey McGill made plain that “any” religion could get a license plate, so long as they weren’t Wiccans.
“In South Carolina, Baptists wanted the tag on cars here and pitched the idea to Republican South Carolina Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer’s chief of staff. State Sen. Yancey McGill, a Kingstree Democrat, got the bill passed in a couple of days without even having a public hearing or debate. “It’s a great idea,” McGill said Tuesday, calling it an opportunity to express beliefs. “People don’t have to buy them. But it affords them that opportunity. I welcome any religion tags.” What about Wicca, commonly referred to as witchcraft? “Well, that’s not what I consider to be a religion,” McGill said.”
Leaving aside the biases of Christian politicians, the question now is if the DMV approves these new “I Believe” plates under the state’s non-profits program, will they then in turn approve other sectarian plates? Hindu plates? Wiccan plates? Any faith so long as they meet the requirements? Are religious plates secular if the sectarian iconography is in the logo?
“The specialty license program has a secular purpose – allowing all nonprofit organizations to identify themselves by a logo or symbol,” McMaster wrote in his Aug. 16 opinion. “It is our opinion that the Establishment Clause would not be violated by approval of the plate. Indeed, it is our opinion that denial would infringe upon the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment.”
We should be paying close attention to what the DMV rules in the instance, and we should be quick in testing the parameters of an approval to see if the law will be applied similarly to all religious non-profits. If Christ’s cross is OK as a logo, then a Wiccan, Druid, Asatru, Hindu, or Buddhist symbol should be as well. If they aren’t, then we may have another court battle on our hands.
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