Updated Monday, July 07, 2008

'I believe' license plates face lawsuit in S.C.

By Erin Roach

Baptist Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Specialty license plates on cars can signal the driver's support of an array of topics from the environment to animals to college sports teams, but those that support belief in God have faced scrutiny in at least two states recently.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed a federal lawsuit in June seeking an injunction to prevent South Carolina from producing a license plate with a design that features a cross superimposed over a stained-glass window along with the words "I Believe."

Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United, said approval of the plate "was a clear signal that Christianity is the preferred religion of South Carolina," according to The New York Times. He added that the Constitution doesn't allow for what he calls a violation of the separation of church and state. Americans United filed the suit on behalf of three South Carolina pastors, a rabbi and the Hindu American Foundation.

South Carolina's lieutenant governor, Andre Bauer, got the idea for the plate from Florida, where a similar proposal failed in the legislature this spring. That state faced opposition from the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, which said the "I Believe" plate gave the impression that Florida endorses a particular religion.

The bill moved through the South Carolina legislature with little discussion earlier this year, the Associated Press said, and Gov. Mark Sanford "let it become law without his signature because the state already allows private groups to create license plates for any cause."

Bobby Harrell, the Republican House Speaker in South Carolina, expressed doubt about Americans United's motive for filing the lawsuit.

"I think this has less to do with the First Amendment and more to do with their disdain for religion generally," Harrell said, according to AP.

Joe Mack, director of the South Carolina Baptist Convention's office of public policy, told the Baptist Courier newspaper he is opposed to the Americans United lawsuit and hopes it fails.

"Christians have a right to express their belief," Mack said. "Secular humanists have a tag; we should be entitled to a tag."

South Carolina's "Secular Humanists of the Low Country" license plate features an American flag and the slogan "In Reason We Trust."