2nd Circuit Withdraws Earlier License Plate Opinion In Light of Supreme Court's Walker Decision

In May in Children First Foundation, Inc. v. Fiala (full text), the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a decision by the New York Department of Motor Vehicles to refuse to issue custom license plates carrying the slogan "Choose Life."  In reaching its conclusion the court held that custom license plates constitute private speech. Subsequently the U.S. Supreme Court in the Walker case held that specialty license plates are government speech. (See prior posting.) Now in Children First Foundation, Inc. v. Fiala, (2d Cir., Aug. 5, 2015), the 2nd Circuit granted a petition for rehearing, withdrew portions of its earlier opinion, vacated the district court's opinion and remanded the case to the district court for further proceedings n light of the Walker decision. New York Law Journal reports on the court's latest action.