Could Texas have Nazi license plates? Supreme Court hears free speech case. (+video)

Washington The United States Supreme Court began grappling on Monday with a thorny free speech issue: whether a state government can use its authority over specialty license plates to endorse certain messages while censoring others.

The issue arises in a lawsuit filed by the Texas Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, who complain that Texas refused to produce and circulate a proposed Sons of Confederate Veterans license plate that prominently featured the Confederate battle flag.

A Texas board rejected the license plate because it said many members of the public find the Confederate battle flag offensive.

Only a handful of proposed specialty license plates have ever rejected by Texas.

The state offers more than 400 specialty plates featuring an eclectic range of messages. They include God Bless Texas, Vietnam Veteran, Id Rather Be Golfing, and Mighty Fine Burgers, a commercial plug for an Austin burger establishment of high repute.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) insist that their proposed license plate is not meant to spread fear or hatred. They view the Confederate flag as a symbol of sacrifice, independence, and Southern heritage, and they argue that the state should not be permitted to muzzle that message.

The case is potentially important because it forces the justices to explore a murky First Amendment middle ground between government-permitted censorship of objectionable speech in some limited cases and guarantees of free speech in most cases even when that speech is offensive.

The so-called government speech doctrine allows the government to engage in viewpoint discrimination in its own speech, but it does not allow such discrimination against private speech. Thus, a central question in the case is who is doing the speaking in the production and display of specialty license plates?

Texas approves and issues a specialty license plate containing a particular message. Next, an individual driver pays extra for the plate, attaches it to her vehicle, and displays the message while driving in public.

Is the resulting communication the speech of the government or the speech of the individual driver?

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Could Texas have Nazi license plates? Supreme Court hears free speech case. (+video)