Lower Court Holding in Walker v. Sons of Confederate of Veterans
Decision of the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals
This case presents two primary issues on appeal. First, we must determine whether the speech on specialty license plates is government speech or private speech. If we conclude that the speech is private speech, we must then ask whether the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles Board’s decision to reject the Texas Sons of Confederate Veterans’ (SCV) specialty license plate was a permissible content-based regulation or impermissible viewpoint discrimination. We address each issue in turn. Government Speech or Private Speech As a threshold matter, we must decide if the speech at issue is government speech. “A government entity has the right…
