Confederate Flag License Plates Not Done in Court Yet

The Sons of the Confederate Veterans (SCV) will have to go back to the drawing board for a new specialty license plate in Virginia. The fate of the nearly 1,700 existing plates with the controversial Confederate battle flag has not been decided.

Federal Judge Jackson Kinser ruled last Friday that Virginia may remove the Confederate flag from specialty SCV license plates, according to a report from Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring’s office.

However, the next step in the process may be just as controversial as the last.

A judge will now decide whether the 1,691 existing SCV license plates throughout the state will be recalled and replaced with plates that do not don the flag. No timetable for that decision has been reported as of time of publication.

Prior to Judge Kinser’s ruling, Virginia already had a law in place that stated SCV specialty plates may not include an emblem, including the Confederate flag, but the Commonwealth was unable to enforce the law due to a prior injunction on First Amendment grounds.

However, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that the state of Texas is free to reject specialty plates donning the Confederate flag, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe had Herring file motions to vacate the previous orders.

Related — Poll: Virginians Split on Confederate Flag License Plate Option

Virginia’s most central hub for plates with Confederate flags is Richmond, the state capital and former capital of the Confederacy. According to statistics published by the Richmond Times-Dispatch and the Daily Progress in Charlottesville, four of Virginia’s top five localities in terms of prevalence of confederate flag plates lie in the Richmond metro area.

Of the 1,691 confederate flag plates in the state, 397 reside in the Richmond area.

Meanwhile, Fairfax County — far and away the largest locality listed in statistics relevant to Sons of Confederate Veterans plates with more than 1 million residents — has only 13 confederate flag plates in its jurisdiction.

Photo credit: Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles