U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser ruled Friday that Virginia may ban the Confederate flag from license plates.
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) called for the removal of the Confederate flag’s image from the state-sponsored specialty license plates in June, calling it “unnecessarily divisive and hurtful.”
But he was opposed by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which had sued the state in 1999 after the General Assembly voted to prohibit the group’s Confederate flag logo from appearing on specialty plates. They won at that time and thought the court’s 1999 decision would still be in effect.
Friday’s ruling overturned that previous 14-year-old injunction and the court stated that the new ban would not violate the First Amendment, The Washington Post reported.
“This ruling will allow Virginia to remove a symbol of oppression and injustice from public display on its license plates. Virginia state government does not have to and will not endorse such a divisive symbol. I appreciate Governor McAuliffe’s leadership in calling for the removal of the flag and those on my team who moved quickly to get it done,” said Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring in a statement.
Kiser must decide if the ruling will apply to new license plates, or it will include the 1,600 existing specialty plates that bear the Confederate flag.
Virginia joins with the likes of Amazon.com, national parks, and other states like California in banning symbols of the Confederacy.
