The Supreme Court will decide whether Texas is violating the free speech rights of some residents by refusing to issue a license plate featuring the Confederate battle flag.
The justices hear arguments Monday in a challenge brought by the Texas division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The group wants a Texas plate similar to ones issued by eight other states that were members of the Confederacy and Maryland.
The battle flag adorns a monument outside the state Capitol in Austin. But the state says putting the image on specialty license plates would be offensive.
The case has made unlikely allies out of the American Civil Liberties Union, anti-abortion groups, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, civil libertarian Nat Hentoff and conservative satirist P.J. O'Rourke.
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