--- title: Confederate-Flag License Plates Get Supreme Court Scrutiny description: The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case involving the image of a Confederate flag on a license plate and decide how much... canonical: https://time.com/3621085/confederate-flag-license-plates/ author: NBC News article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-05T21:52:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T02:37:46.390Z article:section: Politics og:title: Confederate-Flag License Plates Get Supreme Court Scrutiny og:description: The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case involving the image of a Confederate flag on a license plate and decide how much... og:url: https://time.com/3621085/confederate-flag-license-plates/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt552987138e52c8bd/69876d195f570f1c79b14029/texas-confederate-flag-license-plate1.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: A new Georgia license plate featuring the Confederate battle flag. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Confederate-Flag License Plates Get Supreme Court Scrutiny twitter:description: The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case involving the image of a Confederate flag on a license plate and decide how much... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt552987138e52c8bd/69876d195f570f1c79b14029/texas-confederate-flag-license-plate1.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Confederate-Flag License Plates Get Supreme Court Scrutiny by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Dec 5, 2014 9:52 PM UTC  A new Georgia license plate featuring the Confederate battle flag. A new Georgia license plate featuring the Confederate battle flag.Georgia Department of Revenue/AP by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Dec 5, 2014 9:52 PM UTC The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case involving the image of a Confederate flag on a license plate and decide how much control state governments can exert over slogans and messages on vehicle tags. The court will hear an appeal from the state of Texas, which refused five years ago to approve a specialty plate for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, including a logo of a Confederate battle flag surrounded by group’s name and the year 1896. After hearing public comments, the state motor vehicle authority rejected the request, explaining that “many members of the general public find the design offensive,” and associate the flag “with organizations advocating expressions of hate…” [Read the rest of the story from our partners at NBC News](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/confederate-flag-license-plates-get-supreme-court-scrutiny-n262626?cid=par-time-article%5F20141205) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3621085/confederate-flag-license-plates/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3621085/confederate-flag-license-plates/"},"headline":"Confederate-Flag License Plates Get Supreme Court Scrutiny","datePublished":"2014-12-05T21:52:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T02:37:46.390Z","description":"The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case involving the image of a Confederate flag on a license plate and decide how much...","url":"https://time.com/3621085/confederate-flag-license-plates/","keywords":["Courts"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt552987138e52c8bd/69876d195f570f1c79b14029/texas-confederate-flag-license-plate1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"NBC News","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nbc-news/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt552987138e52c8bd/69876d195f570f1c79b14029/texas-confederate-flag-license-plate1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A new Georgia license plate featuring the Confederate battle flag.","caption":"Confederate Flag License Plate Georgia","creditText":"Georgia Department of Revenue/AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3621085/confederate-flag-license-plates/","name":"Confederate-Flag License Plates Get Supreme Court Scrutiny"}}]}] ```