{"id":5434,"date":"2015-06-24T08:00:56","date_gmt":"2015-06-24T12:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=5434"},"modified":"2015-06-24T00:51:23","modified_gmt":"2015-06-24T04:51:23","slug":"bipartisan-support-for-confederate-flag-removal-in-maryland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=5434","title":{"rendered":"Bipartisan Support for Confederate Flag Removal in Maryland"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CFHogan\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Letter from Forty-Two State Legislators<\/h4>\n

June 23, 2015
\nSecretary Pete Rahn
\nMaryland Department of Transportation
\nOffice of the Secretary
\n7201 Corporate Center Drive
\nP.O. Box 548
\nHanover, MD. 21076<\/p>\n

Milton Chaffee
\nMotor Vehicle Administrator
\n6601 Ritchie Highway NE
\nGlen Burnie, MD 21062<\/p>\n

Dear Secretary Rahn and Administrator Chaffee:<\/p>\n

As you know, the Supreme Court held last week in Walker v. Sons of Confederate Veterans that states can exclude the Confederate flag from government specialty license plate programs.\u00a0 Consequently, we request that you use your authority to reinstate Maryland’s previous policy of not including the Confederate battle flag in specialty license plate designs.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court determined that these programs reflect expressions of government speech and therefore do not constitute an open forum for private speech within the meaning of the First Amendment. Our high court has thus transformed the meaning of messages contained in our specialty license plates into Maryland government speech, and these plates now inevitably carry the imprimatur and symbolic prestige of our state government and our people.<\/p>\n

Given this understanding, we should not include the Confederate battle flag\u2014the nation\u2019s leading symbol of secession, armed rebellion against the U.S. government, slavery and racism–in our specialty license plate program.\u00a0 To be sure, every symbol has multiple connotations, and not everyone who displays the flag means the same thing by it.\u00a0 But there is no doubt that for millions of Marylanders, the Confederate battle flag\u2019s meaning is reasonably and uniquely identified with the history of slavery, white supremacy, and racial violence. In the 20th century, after Brown v. Board of Education was decided, the flag was resurrected as a symbol of Jim Crow segregation and violent opposition to the Civil Rights Movement.<\/p>\n

The policy question of whether to issue Confederate flag plates arose in Maryland in 1996.\u00a0 Back then the Motor Vehicles Administration decided to recall Maryland license plates that had been issued with Confederate flags on them. This action was struck down by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on free speech grounds in a decision now effectively overruled by the Supreme Court. We therefore urge you to work with the MVA to reinstate its former policy on this issue and exclude the use of the Confederate insignia on state license plates.<\/p>\n

We hope that you will undertake a prompt review of the situation and conclude that the state of Maryland has both the legal authority and a clear reason to disassociate ourselves from a symbol that may reasonably be regarded as a \u201cbadge and incident\u201d of slavery within the meaning of the Thirteenth Amendment.<\/p>\n

Sincerely,<\/p>\n

Senator Jamie Raskin
\nSenator Catherine Pugh
\nSenator Susan Lee
\nSenator Cheryl Kagan
\nSenator Nathaniel McFadden
\nSenator Rich Madaleno
\nSenator Karen Montgomery
\nSenator Paul Pinsky
\nSenator Victor Ramirez<\/p>\n

Delegate Barbara Robinson
\nDelegate Vanessa Atterbeary
\nDelegate Erek Barron
\nDelegate Pam Beidle
\nDelegate Al Carr
\nDelegate Luke Clippinger
\nDelegate David Fraser-Hidalgo
\nDelegate Bill Frick
\nDelegate Ana Sol Gutierrez
\nDelegate Shelly Hettleman
\nDelegate Sheila Hixson
\nDelegate Anne Kaiser
\nDelegate Tony Knotts
\nDelegate Marc Korman
\nDelegate Ben Kramer
\nDelegate Karen Lewis Young
\nDelegate Brooke Lierman
\nDelegate Eric Luedtke
\nDelegate David Moon
\nDelegate Shane Pendergrass
\nDelegate Andrew Platt
\nDelegate Kirill Reznik
\nDelegate Sandy Rosenberg
\nDelegate Sheree Sample-Hughes
\nDelegate Will Smith
\nDelegate Dana Stein
\nDelegate Charles Sydnor III
\nDelegate Jimmy Tarlau
\nDelegate Kris Valderamma
\nDelegate Jeff Waldstreicher
\nDelegate Alonzo Washington
\nDelegate Mary Washington
\nDelegate Craig Zucker<\/p>\n

Letter from Sen. Jamie Raskin and Del. David Moon<\/h4>\n

June 22, 2015<\/p>\n

Brian Frosh, Attorney General
\nOffice of the Attorney General
\n200 St. Paul Place, Baltimore, MD 21202<\/p>\n

Dear Attorney General Frosh:<\/p>\n

We hereby request an opinion from the Office of the Attorney General on whether the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA) can, without legislation, exclude the Confederate flag from specialty license plate designs.<\/p>\n

This week the United States Supreme Court held in Walker v. Sons of Confederate Veterans that Texas can exclude the Confederate flag from its government license plate programs. In 1996, the Maryland MVA similarly decided to recall Maryland license plates that had been issued with Confederate flags on them, but this action was struck down by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. This decision has now been effectively overruled by the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

We therefore seek your confirmation that the MVA may now take steps to recall previously issued license plates with the Confederate flag and may exclude the Confederate flag from future specialty license plate designs.<\/p>\n

Very truly yours,<\/p>\n

Jamie Raskin
\nSenator, District 20<\/p>\n

David Moon
\nDelegate, District 20<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Letter from Forty-Two State Legislators June 23, 2015 Secretary Pete Rahn Maryland Department of Transportation Office of the Secretary 7201 Corporate Center Drive P.O. Box 548 Hanover, MD. 21076 Milton Chaffee Motor Vehicle Administrator 6601 Ritchie Highway NE Glen Burnie, MD 21062 Dear Secretary Rahn and Administrator Chaffee: As you know, the Supreme Court held … Continue reading Bipartisan Support for Confederate Flag Removal in Maryland<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1422],"tags":[1641,1502,968],"class_list":["post-5434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-confederate-flag","tag-david-moon","tag-jamie-raskin","tag-larry-hogan"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4mKJE-1pE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5434"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5446,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5434\/revisions\/5446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}