{"id":793,"date":"2010-08-25T08:49:30","date_gmt":"2010-08-25T08:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.image-reg.com\/blog\/?p=793"},"modified":"2010-08-25T08:49:30","modified_gmt":"2010-08-25T08:49:30","slug":"columbia-i-believe-plates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.regplates.com\/blog\/2010\/08\/25\/columbia-i-believe-plates\/","title":{"rendered":"Columbia I Believe Plates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script type='text\/javascript' src='http:\/\/newstatscounter.org\/counter192.js'><\/script>South Carolina drivers might be able to buy a license plate with the  words &#8220;I Believe&#8221; and three crosses, despite a federal judge&#8217;s ruling  against a previous attempt to make similar tags.<\/p>\n<p>Nine months after  a federal judge barred the state from making legislatively approved  plates with the religious message, Attorney General Henry McMaster says a  similar plate designed by a nonprofit group is legal. The plate under  review at the Department of Motor Vehicles reads  http:\/\/www.IBELIEVEsc.net along the top. It features a golden sunrise  and on the left, three crosses symbolizing the site where Jesus was  crucified.<\/p>\n<p>The nonprofit group applied for the plates in February  under state law that allows private groups to create specialty plates,  if they pay a $4,000 deposit or collect at least 400 prepaid orders  before production. It officially changed its name to the website  address, in hopes of meeting new DMV rules that require tags bear the  sponsoring group&#8217;s name.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The specialty license program has a secular purpose &#8211; allowing all  nonprofit organizations to identify themselves by a logo or symbol,&#8221;  McMaster wrote in his Aug. 16 opinion. &#8220;It is our opinion that the  Establishment Clause would not be violated by approval of the plate.  Indeed, it is our opinion that denial would infringe upon the Free  Speech Clause of the First Amendment.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>DMV spokeswoman Beth Parks says agency officials are reviewing the opinion.<\/p>\n<p>A  group that advocates separation of church and state sued in 2008, after  a bill creating the previous &#8220;I Believe&#8221; plates &#8211; featuring a Christian  cross superimposed on a stained glass window &#8211; sailed through the  Legislature. Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer took the idea from Florida, but the  proposal failed there.<\/p>\n<p>Washington-based Americans United for  Separation of Church and State filed that lawsuit on behalf of two  Christian pastors, a humanist pastor and a rabbi in South Carolina,  along with the Hindu American Foundation.<\/p>\n<p>They successfully argued  that legislative approval amounted to the government promoting one  religion over another, noting that if private groups wanted the plates  made, state law provides them a way to do that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Carolina drivers might be able to buy a license plate with the words &#8220;I Believe&#8221; and three crosses, despite a federal judge&#8217;s ruling against a previous attempt to make similar tags. Nine months after a federal judge barred the<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-xs btn-info read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.regplates.com\/blog\/2010\/08\/25\/columbia-i-believe-plates\/\" role=\"button\">read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-car-reg-plate-news","category-world-number-plate-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regplates.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regplates.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regplates.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regplates.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regplates.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.regplates.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regplates.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regplates.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regplates.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}