Constitutional Law

Vt. settles dispute over religious vanity plate

By By The Associated Press

MONTPELIER, Vt. — The state of Vermont has ended a years-long legal dispute with a man who has been fighting for the right to display a reference to one of the Bible?s most famous passages on a vanity plate.

The state won?t ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review a federal appeals court decision that said Shawn Byrne must be given the license plate ?JN36TN,? a reference to John 3:16.

In a settlement dated Jan. 10, the state also agreed to pay Byrne?s $150,000 legal fees and allow other Vermonters to have religious-themed license plates.

The state decided to settle the case because chances of a successful appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court were slim, said Vermont Assistant Attorney General Bridget Asay. ?They receive thousands of requests a year and only grant 1 percent of them.?

Meanwhile, Assistant Attorney General Thomas McCormick, who represents the Department of Motor Vehicles, said the order for Byrne?s license plate was placed last week. He said he didn?t know how long it would take for the order to be filled.

Byrne did not return a call seeking comment in time for this story.

?This really is a great victory for free speech,? said Jeremy Tedesco, the general counsel for the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, which represented Byrne.

In April 2004 Byrne asked the DMV for a vanity plate for his Ford pickup. He gave three choices, all variations on themes referring to John 3:16.

Tedesco said the verse is one of the Bible?s most often-displayed passages: ?For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.?

The state rejected Byrne?s initial application because of a prohibition on religious themes on license plates. In January 2005, Byrne filed suit in federal court in Burlington.

In 2007 the federal court ruled in favor of the state. But Byrne appealed, and a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously in his favor in October.

The appeals court noted that Vermont allows its residents to display on their license plates expressions of personal philosophy and taste, as well as inspirational messages and statements of affiliation.

?The state rejected Byrne?s message only because it addressed ... areas of otherwise permissible expression from a religious perspective,? the appeals court wrote. ?This the state cannot do.?

The appeals court ruling said the state could continue its ban on vanity plates that refer to scatological subjects, genitalia, illicit drugs, racial epithets and other objectionable material.

Tedesco said the case would help other license plate cases around the country.

?It was a wholesale victory, not just for Mr. Byrne but for anybody in Vermont,? he said. ?This is a very transportable victory.?

Full post as published by First Amendment Center on January 17, 2011 (boomark / email).