PHOENIX, Arizona, February 14, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – An Arizona state senator is seeking to eliminate a specialty license plate reading “In God We Trust.”
According to the Huffington Post, Sen. Juan Mendez, D-Tempe, has introduced a bill seeking to bar the Department of Transportation from selling the plate because its proceeds go to Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).
ADF, labeled a “hate group” by the extreme, anti-Christian Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), defends Christians and other Americans who lose their jobs or face litigation over matters of conscience. One of its most high-profile recent clients was Jack Phillips, the Christian baker who refused to make a cake for a same-sex “wedding.”
ADF has also fought on behalf of a Christian photographer and a Christian florist who did not want to participate in same-sex “weddings.” The group has protected the free speech and conscience rights of pro-life students on American campuses on many occasions.
Mendez, who had already introduced a state bill proposing full disclosure of license plate proceeds, released a statement suggesting ADF is a “hate group.”
“Hopefully in the future we can put in place some commonsense guidelines that would bar hate groups from earning money through Arizona license plates,” he wrote.
Referring to ADF’s activism, Mendez added, “State dollars should not be funding an organization that works to strip residents of our state of their human rights and human dignity. It’s appalling that we’ve already sent over a million dollars to this extremist hate group.”
The Secular Coalition for Arizona is behind Mendez’s actions. According to news site AZ Central, the Secular Coalition asked him to find out where profits from “In God We Trust” plates were going. AZ Central says hitherto buyers were told only that the profits went to promote “the motto, First Amendment rights, ‘and the heritage of this state and nation.’”
In response to the controversy, ADF released a statement on Monday.
“Secular Coalition for Arizona has the same opportunity as any other non-profit group to create a license plate that expresses their view,” wrote ADF Senior Vice President of U.S. Legal Division Kristen Waggoner.
“Rather than shutting down speech, they should add to the conversation with their own perspective,” she continued. “That’s how free speech works in this country.”
Waggoner said that Arizona has the right to offer its citizens the chance to voluntarily purchase license plates affirming the First Amendment and contribute to ADF’s pro-bono work “to protect freedom of speech, religion, and conscience for all Americans.”
“The way to counter speech you disagree with is not to use the government to banish a message like ‘In God We Trust,’ but simply to speak your own view,” she stated.
Waggoner also took aim at the SPLC, saying it engages in “baseless smear campaigns” aimed at destroying ideological opponents and “only attacks groups on the right.”
“It’s disappointing to see elected officials become uncritical pawns in these ugly propaganda campaigns,” she added, saying that the SPLC has been “widely discredited for decades.”
“The SPLC did good work years ago, but they’ve been widely discredited for decades by investigative journalists, charity watchdogs, and commentators as activist, partisan, and unreliable,” she wrote.
Waggoner also noted ADF is “one of the nation’s most successful and respected Supreme Court advocates,” winning nine U.S. Supreme Court cases in the last seven years.
“In 2018, Empirical SCOTUS ranked ADF first among ‘the top performing firms’ litigating First Amendment cases in its Supreme Court All-Stars 2013-2017 list,” she wrote.
“Whether it’s the national motto, freedom of speech in the public square, or freedom of religion and conscience, ADF will continue to defend and protect these constitutionally protected freedoms for all Americans.”
Arizona’s Department of Transportation (ADOT) currently offers 68 specialty license plates for sale. $17 of the $25 purchase price goes towards participating charities. There are plates available to support youth charities, universities, Arizona “public educators,” the pro-abortion Girl Scouts, hunger relief, and the Arizona freemasons. As is the case in many states, “Choose Life” license plates are available. The $17 proceeds of these plates in Arizona go to the Arizona Life Coalition.
AZ Central reported that ADOT records show ADF has received more than $900,000 from the “In God We Trust” plates since 2014.