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The Texas Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) applied to sponsor a specialty license plate featuring a Confederate battle flag from the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles Board. The Board denied the plate because, at least in part, “public comments ha[d] shown that many members of the general public find the design offensive, and because such comments are reasonable.” The SCV brought suit, alleging a violation of their First Amendment rights.

SCV argued that a private organization should be able to have a specialty license plate with the Confederate battle flag on it. On the other side, the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles Board said that license plates constitute government speech because the state government controls their production. The state, therefore, may choose not to approve a Confederate flag, which many Texans find offensive, as part of a specialty license plate design.

On June 18, 2015, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that license plates issued through the state of Texas’s specialty license plate program constitute government speech, and that Texas, accordingly, had the right to reject a design featuring the Confederate battle flag on the grounds that many Texans find the flag offensive.