Supreme Court Update

Today, the Supreme Court announced decision in six cases, including two of particular note:

• Walker v. Sons of Confederate Veterans – The court held, 5-4, that Texas’ specialty license plates are government speech. As such, the state can decide what messages are put on them without violating the First amendment to the Constitution. Justice Alito argued in his dissent that the messages on these plates is proposed by private parties and so it is private speech. He said that the government should not be able to restrict the messages on license plates, even if they are unpopular.

• Reed v. Town of Gilbert – The court held that the town could not regulate a church’s temporary signs offering directions to worship services. The court said these regulations were aimed at the sign’s content and violated the First Amendment. The town had argued that its ordinance limiting the kinds of signs that could be posted was not targeting church signs or other protected speech.

The court expected to issue decisions in 11 other cases by the end of this month, including these: