Maryland likely to recall Confederate license plates

In a 5-4 decision in June, Supreme Court justices said states that sell special license plates promoting everything from “Choose Life” to “Conserve Water” can prohibit images such as the Confederate flag without violating the First Amendment.

“I can’t fight on the battlefield like they did, but I can fight however I can in modern times and I’m not giving them plates up”, he said.

U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis issued an order on Thursday granting the Attorney General’s request to lift the 1997 injunction that prevented the recall of Sons of Confederate Veterans specialty tags. Others see it as an homage to the Jim Crow era after the war when blacks were subjugated and Southern state legislatures inserted the symbol in state flags to show their defiance in wake of civil-rights advances for African Americans. Garbis issued an order permitting Attorney General Brian Fosh to lift that ruling, with the order going into full effect mid-November. “It has no place in any contemporary government use”, Frosh said in a statement. Then in August, the state went one step further and ordered a recall of a few 1,700 specialty license plates depicting the Confederate battle flag. Confederate plate holders will receive notification about the recall from the Department of Motor Vehicles. However, only 163 people have complied.

“The changes reflect an agreement [we] reached with the Georgia chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which sponsors the specialty plate”, William Gaston, a spokesman for Georgia’s Department of Revenue, told Reuters.

After the shooting, photographs emerged of Roof showing him pictured with the Confederate flag and a gun.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) signed a bill in July to remove the Confederate flag from the statehouse grounds.