George Pyle’s Jan. 19 column gets the First Amendment badly wrong in asserting that the obnoxious “DEPORTM” license plate can and should be censored by the state.
The tag’s apparent message is political opinion, fully protected by the First Amendment, however many people object to it, or how much it offends them.
It is not racist, as Pyle asserts, and surely is not sexist, although neither of those would open the door to government censorship. In fact, it does not qualify for government suppression under any of the allowable First Amendment restrictions.
When the state allows license tags expressing personal opinions at all, it cannot disapprove “DEPORTM” on account of its message, notwithstanding the incorrect and legally unsupported claim that such messages are, to some degree, “state” speech.
Freedom of speech is meaningful only if it includes the freedom to offend, to say or otherwise utter things that offend and that people do not want to hear or see. It cannot be merely the freedom to approve conventionally acceptable or currently popular ideas.
Thomas D. Dial, Cottonwood Heights
