The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 2 of 8)

/p> p> In the article titled "E Unum Motto Pluribus" the question was asked whether U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval is a Clinton appointee. I can confirm that he is. Here is the source : br> -- Ed /p>

I think your writer (Feder) misses the point in his "E Unum Motto Pluribus editorial.

The state government administrations' issuance of designer automobile license plates as a vehicle to impose additional de facto taxes is already an end run around the fact that most states' constitutions grant the power to raise taxes to their legislature, and is abhorrent on its face.

That said, the government should not put itself in a position of supporting one viewpoint by offering official plates that advocate it, while withholding the option of plates that present the opposing view.

A more reasoned conclusion would have been that the state government constitutions almost certainly provide no authority for the state to offer sanction of any political viewpoint on a fee basis, and that all of the advocacy plates were unconstitutional.

To put things in context, would Mr. Feder similarly reach the conclusion that state-sanctioned license plates advocating drug use were acceptable when none counseling non-use were offered? I think not.

p>The fact is, the states need to charge the simple requisite fees, issue standard no-message licenses, and let citizens exercise their own free speech on topics of the day without government interference. br> -- John Mercer

topics:
Taxes, Satire, Constitution, Law, Founding Fathers, Russia