{"id":539,"date":"2006-03-08T13:10:36","date_gmt":"2006-03-08T13:10:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/?p=539"},"modified":"2025-09-30T00:37:47","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T00:37:47","slug":"new_york_choose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/?p=539","title":{"rendered":"New York \u201cChoose Life\u201d Lawsuit is Victorious in Federal 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Contact: Dr. Elizabeth Rex at (914) 629-3710 or Jeff Shafer, Esq. at (202) 637-4609<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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NEW YORK <\/span>– In a stunning decision released on March 7th<\/sup>, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed Attorney General Eliot Spitzer\u2019s second attempt to ban the phrase \u201cChoose Life\u201d from a pro-adoption specialty plate in NY State.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Attorney General\u2019s first defeat occurred in January, 2005, when a federal judge ruled that The Children First Foundation (CFF) had sufficiently alleged constitutional violations involving freedom of speech and equal protection under the law. The August 2005 trial date was postponed when the state appealed the federal court ruling to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The three-judge panel decision states that CFF\u2019s complaint \u201cspecifically alleges that defendants denied the picture-plate application \u2018based on their disagreement with [the] life-affirming viewpoint expressed on the plate.\u2019 On a motion to dismiss, we must accept this allegation, and all reasonable inferences drawn from it, as true.\u201d The appellate decision further states that \u201c[e]ven if defendants are correct that the picture-plate program is a nonpublic forum (…) the complaint alleges that defendants engaged in viewpoint discrimination, and it is clearly established that, even in a nonpublic forum, restrictions on speech must be reasonable and viewpoint neutral.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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CFF\u2019s Alliance Defense Fund attorneys, Jeff Shafer and Brian Raum, were particularly pleased that the decision did not grant qualified immunity to any of the defendants, including Governor George Pataki and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who are being sued for constitutional violations in both their individual and official capacities.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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\u201cNo one is above the law,\u201d explained Dr. Elizabeth Rex, President of The Children First Foundation. \u201cThis appellate court ruling is another great victory for freedom of speech and equal treatment under the law for all New Yorkers.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contact: Dr. Elizabeth Rex at (914) 629-3710 or Jeff Shafer, Esq. at (202) 637-4609 NEW YORK – In a stunning decision released on March 7th, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed Attorney General Eliot Spitzer\u2019s second attempt to ban the phrase \u201cChoose Life\u201d from a pro-adoption specialty plate in NY State. The Attorney General\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-choose-life-license-plates","category-new-york-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=539"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1083,"href":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539\/revisions\/1083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/life-net-bf3c43.ingress-alpha.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}