Choose Life Ill Inc Case Summary

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1. Choose Life Ill., Inc. v. White, 547 F.3d 853 (7th Cir. 2008). a. Facts: 25,000 signatures were collected from residents interested in purchasing a “Choose Life” specialty plate. The proposal for this plate was denied. CLI argued that failure to allow these specialty plates constituted viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment. The district court ordered the Secretary of State to issue the plate, but stayed its judgment pending appeal. Secretary argued that the messages on specialty license plates are government speech and therefore no First Amendment rights are implicated. b. Holding: Reversed; (1) Specialty plates are private speech and this triggers a forum analysis; (2) specialty plates are a nonpublic forum; (3) Illinois …show more content…

Viewpoint neutrality/reasonableness: (1) Illinois excluded the subject of abortion from its specialty plate program. (2) Illinois has not favored one viewpoint over another on the subject of abortion. Instead, the State has restricted access to the specialty plate forum on the basis of the content of the proposed plate - no abortion-related specialty plates, period. ii. (TEST APPLIED to see if government or private speech): Under all the circumstances, would a reasonable person consider the speaker to be the government or a private party? iii. Factors bearing on this analysis include, but are not limited to, the (1) degree to which the message originates with the government, (2) the degree to which the government exercises editorial control over the message, and (3) whether the government or a private party communicates the message. iv. (1) Illinois invites private civic and charitable organizations to place their messages on specialty license plates. Specialty plates serve as “mobile billboards” for the organizations/like-minded car owners to promote causes and also are a lucrative source of funds. v. (2) Editorial control over the message is shared between the sponsoring organization and the State: the organization typically develops the plate design, subject to the State's authority to modify