<P> In 2015, the dispute over Texas vanity plates that would have displayed the logo ended up before the United States Supreme Court . In its decision in Walker v. Texas Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans, the court ruled that license plates are governmental speech, so the government may decide what to have printed on them . Texas's refusal to issue flag - emblazoned license plates therefore didn't violate petitioners' right to free speech . </P> <P> In 2015, Virginia recalled its vanity plates with the Confederate flag emblem pictured within the logo of the Sons of Confederate Veterans . To holders of SCV plates, the state mailed replacements without the emblem . The old design with the emblem was invalidated and driving with such Virginia tags was made a misdemeanor similar to driving an unlicensed vehicle, though in October 2015 a SCV legal team tried fighting the ban in court . </P> <P> The Confederate battle flag was raised over the State House on April 11, 1961 at the request of Representative John May, ostensibly as a part of opening celebrations of the Confederate War Centennial, according to Dr. Daniel Hollis, an appointed member of the centennial commission . Many historians point out that the appearance of the flag likely had a more nefarious purpose: to symbolize Southern defiance in the face of a burgeoning Civil Rights Movement . In March 1962, lawmakers passed a resolution directing the flag be flown over the State House . As Time magazine later noted, the move was "a states' - rights rebuff to desegregation ." </P> <P> On April 12, 2000, the South Carolina State Senate passed a bill to remove the Confederate flag from the top of the State House dome by a majority vote of 36 to 7 . "...(T) he new bill specified that a more traditional version of the battle flag would be flown in front of the Capitol next to a monument honoring fallen Confederate soldiers ." The bill also passed the state's House of Representatives, but not without some difficulty . On May 18, 2000, after the bill was modified to ensure that the height of the flag's new pole would be 30 feet (9 m), it was passed by a majority of 66 to 43 . Governor Jim Hodges signed the bill into law five days later after it passed the state Senate . On July 1, 2000 the flag was removed from atop the State House by two students (one white and one black) from The Citadel; a more historically accurate Confederate battle flag was then raised on a 30 - foot pole on the front lawn of the Capitol next to a slightly taller monument honoring Confederate soldiers who died during the Civil War . State law prohibited the flag's removal from the State House grounds without additional legislation . </P>

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