In August 2015, in Cressman v. Thompson, the Tenth Circuit rejected Keith Cressman’s claim that the State of Oklahoma violated his First Amendment right to freedom of speech by requiring him to use a license plate depicting a Native American shooting an arrow towards the sky. You can see a picture of the license plate after the majority opinion.
The Tenth Circuit rejected this compelled speech claim because a reasonable person would not view the license plate as conveying the pantheistic message to which Mr. Cressman objected, but “would likely connect the image to Oklahoma’s Native American history and culture.”
Mr. Cressman is now asking the Supreme Court to review his case. This post by Ilya Shapiro and Jayme Weber of the Cato Institute explains why they think the Tenth Circuit got it wrong. You can read the amicus brief the Cato Institute filed in support of Mr. Cressman’s petition for certiorari here.
