"Choose Life" License Plates Not Religious Speech

From the Religion Clause blog:

"Children First Foundation v. Martinez, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 94944 (ND NY, Dec. 27, 2007) is a challenge to New York state's refusal to approve special picture license plates that include the slogan "Choose Life". In this phase of the litigation, a New York federal district court refused to permit the Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles to amend her answer to raise an Establishment Clause defense, finding that religious speech was not involved. The court reasoned:

'It may very well be true that those who participate in the abortion debate on the pro-life side are members of religious organizations whose religious beliefs form the basis for their views. However, that does not transform the pro-life stance into one that is religious in nature, nor does it transform the phrase, "Choose Life" into religious speech. Nothing in constitutional jurisprudence supports the conclusion that political speech which is derived from one's ethical or religious beliefs or background transforms it into religious speech. Many religious persons and organizations may be opposed to capital punishment, or perhaps in favor of gun control. Those political issues are not therefore automatically transformed into religious issues simply by virtue of the religious beliefs of their supporters. The same is true for the abortion debate.'"

This decision is obviously correct, but many people still persist in believing that pro-life speech is religious speech just because many religious people are pro-life. Indeed, some people even make the absurd argument that all laws regulating abortion constitute religious establishments in violation of the Establishment Clause.

Of course, many great political movements--abolition of slavery, civil rights, environmental laws, and welfare for the poor to name just a few--are closely related with the religious beliefs of people who support these causes. It is silly to argue that civil rights laws or welfare laws or environmental laws violate the Establishment Clause merely because many supporters of these laws do so based upon religious beliefs or religious notions of morality. The same is obviously true of pro-life laws and pro-family laws. No?