"Choose Life" license plates and "Viewpoint Neutrality"

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has held, in Planned Parenthood v. Rose, that South Carolina's "Choose Life" license plate violates the First Amendment. (The opinion is here; thanks to Howard Bashman for the link). Because I have the pleasure of teaching a course on First Amendment law, I will have to untangle the court's winding path through the Supreme Court's increasingly tricky caselaw on government speech, public forums ("fora"?), and viewpoint discrimination.

Because our blog is not so much about legal doctrine as it is about our efforts to better understand, and to critique, that doctrine from the perspective of the Catholic intellectual tradition, I'll spare my colleagues any thoughts on the court's selection, interpretation, and application of the relevant precedents. But because many who write and think about religious freedom (including Kathleen and others of my colleagues) also -- by necessity -- write and think about free-speech and public-forum doctrine, the Fourth Circuit's decision will likely be of interest to "Mirror of Justice" readers.

Rick