Vanity Plates, the First Amendment, and a Judge on the Rise

Enjoyed the article, thanks.

This state was one of the first to "embrace' gay marriage as legal. This state votes nothing but liberal agendas constantly, both within the state and in the federal system. What did he expect? I lived there for 19 LONG months. I lived in the capital city. I thought when we moved there it would be like the image you conjure up when you think of the von Trapp family, or "Baby Boom", etc. It is not. Even with laws banning smoking in federal/state buildings or their vicinity, you smell it no matter where you walk. (I walked everywhere in Montpelier.) It is a "green, clean state!" Horse rubbish. At any time you need to watch where you walk on the side walks because even though they have their animals on leashes, the amount of animal excrement is ridiculous. And if you have ever been around drug users you know the smell, the attitude and the "un cleanliness that surrounds a lot of them. I have never seen such a large amount of dirty, filthy, tat'ed people in such a small area in my life ... and I lived outside of San Francisco, as well as other places in the US. I lived on an island 40 years ago as a child, with little running water and questionable electricity ... and the inhabitants there were poorer and cleaner then what I saw in this place. Why this man thought that he could get that licence plate approved in this state I have no idea. On a positive note, a visit to Lake Champlain and the surrounding areas are wonderful. Burlington and all parts north to Canada are really open and fresh and unique. I just didn't live there. I was stuck in Montpelier ... a dark, dreary place with a lot of ne'er do wells.

The USA founded on the principles of GOD/CHRIST has become so ANTT-GOD that it is sad! The government (and that is BOTH left & right) cares nothing about GOD except as a political pawn for the most part! Many speak of DISCRIMINATION against gays, blacks, etc. Yet no one is willing to step up to the plate until Judge Livingston appeared on the scene to DEFEND the FREEDOM OF SPEECH rights of the followers of JESUS CHRIST! And up until that moment Christians were being DISCRIMINATED on the ISSUS of VANITY PLATES. But it does not end there. There was the case a while back of the Home Depot employee who wore for quite some time a "God Bless America" button on his Home Depot smock. All was cool with Home Depot until one day this gentleman decided to bring the Word of God aka The Holy Bible with him to work to read on his lunch hour. With the PERCIEVED notion from Home Depot that the button now said "GOD Bless America" as opposed to "God Bless AMERICA" he was told to remove the button or be fired as no one is allowed to wear a religious button. DISCRIMINATION again!

JUST DON'T TRY TO GET A PLATE WITH YOUR DECEASED PETS NAME ON IT. DMV WILL THING IT IS DRUG RELATED. I TRIED TO GET JAGR - DOG WAS NAMED AFTER PROFESSIONAL HOCKEY PLAYER. ANYBODY EVER HEAR OF HIM. DMV DIDN'T. MUST BE DRUGS.

As a car owner registered in Vermont with vanity plates I can tell you that the at price the VDMV is charging for them one should have anything they want on the plate, vulgarity excluded. I pay for the privledge of haveing some personal expression to adorn my wheels, let me have what I darn well please. I have had nothing but complements and "Wow, nice, glad you can afford it" responces. The state of Vermont is rapidly becoming a nanny state in many more aspects than vanity plates.

Yay, Judge Livingston! Its about time that states followed the First Amendment. You go, Shawn Byrne! And GDBLESU!

I would never think of telling another American citizen that their promised "freedom to worship" was just a joke. There are peole of all faiths in this nation,and each - according to our Constitution- has a right to worship as they please. I can't change you,and you will never change me. I am a Christian, whether you like it or not, and nothing you ever say orr do will change that. Every citizen of this country should have the right to feel the same. I can not be a true Christian, and deny that I am.

I think you should be able to about anything on your plate but they should really have to pay a lot for the ego of the things, PS many are to hard to figure out for the average person going down the freeway so they wasted their money anyway.JSTSAN

I wouldnt mind the states offering plates that stated ones belifes if they carred an array of choices ie not just christian but pagen, jewish, muslem, body mod. or even athesist(sp?)but as it is they norm only carry the one

Need to have your car serve as a billboard to express your political or religious views? TRY A BUMPER STICKER! A license plate is produced using government funds--i.e., tax dollars--and is an official statement that the car has legal, government-issued permission to operate on the public ways. Allowing religious expressions and symbols thereon IS an unconstitutional "establishment of religion;" but denying permission for them is NOT a violation of the "free exercise of religion," since drivers are free to plaster their cars with as many religious statements and symbols as they want...just NOT with taxpayer subsidies. Allowing secular philosophical statements is NOT an "establishment of religion," as the secular is not religious---despite so many Christian fundamentalists and evangelicals insisting on characterizing the absence of religion as a "spiritual belief system" in and of itself. Teaching evolution is not a "religion." Wishing for peace is not necessarily a "prayer" unless addressed to a deity. The recent trend of conservatives deeming absence of religion a religion in and of itself is a lamentable and underhanded way to try to establish Christianity as America's official religion, making an end run around not just the intent of the founding fathers but the language of the Constitution itself. I am sick of these Tea Party "cafeteria constitutionalists" cherry-picking our founding document to justify and legitimize their biases while ignoring the rest of it.