On June 26, Herring filed a motion to have that injunction dissolved and vacate an order requiring the flag to be placed on Sons of Confederate Veterans license plates.
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Watch CBS 6 News at 11 p.m. for an update on this developing story from reporter Chelsea Rarrick.
The judge dissolved an injunction that forced Virginia to put the Confederate battle flag on certain specialty license plates, like the Sons of Confederate Veterans plate.
“We’re working as quickly as possible to get this done”, she said. “Specialty license plates represent the government’s speech, and the Commonwealth may choose, consonant with the First Amendment, the message it wishes to convey on those plates”, Federal Judge Jackson Kiser wrote”.
The high court ruled earlier this summer in a Texas case that specialty license plates are a government function and not individual free speech protected by the Constitution.
In reaction to Kiser’s decision, Attorney General Herring said it “will allow Virginia to remove a symbol of oppression and injustice from public display on its license plates”.
Affected motorists also will be sent envelopes addressed to the DMV asking them to return the existing plates to the state for recycling. The Commonwealth’s rationale for singling out [Sons of Confederate Veterans] for different treatment is no longer relevant.
The state had been blocked for 14 years from banning the tags because of a federal injunction won by the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
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In 1999, the General Assembly authorized the plates but prohibited any logo on the design.
