Sons of Confederate Veterans headed to court over battle flag license plates

(Copyright by WSLS - All rights reserved)

WRIC – RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Attorneys for the Virginia Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans, and the national organization of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, have filed a response to the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles' motion to vacate a 2001 decision of the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia and a 2002 decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Those decisions and resulting court orders instructed the Virginia DMV to begin issuing the specialty license plates bearing the SCV's Confederate Battle flag-themed logo. The original lawsuit, Sons of Confederate Veterans v. Holcomb, was sparked in 1999 when the Virginia General Assembly voted to approve the SCV's specialty tag, but only after illegally removing the organization's logo from the plate – the first and only logo ever so censored by the Virginia legislature.

Recommended Videos



Earlier this week, the SCV retained counsel to make that determination and file a response to the Virginia DMV's Motion to vacate the earlier judgment.

"The Governor on his authority alone does not have the power to demand license plates off of the street," said Fred D. Taylor, an attorney for the SCV. "In fact, the Walker decision does not automatically remove the Virginia SCV's logo either.

"When comparing the two cases, the procedure for issuing specialty license plates is so vastly different between Texas and Virginia that there is an important legal question as to whether the U.S. Supreme Court's Walker decision even applies here."

A hearing on the motion is currently scheduled for July 31, at 11 a.m. at the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Danville.