Maryland will soon start recalling license plates emblazoned with the Confederate flag after a federal judge lifted an 18-year-old injunction keeping them in circulation.
The state joins Virginia, where many owners of the tags are defying the recall,
Fox News reports.
The effort in both states comes in the wake of the June shooting deaths of nine churchgoers in South Carolina by a
self-proclaimed white supremacist who took pictures of himself with guns and the Confederate flag and posted them online before the massacre.
According to
The Baltimore Sun, Maryland had been rebuffed in previous attempts in the 1990s to yank the Sons of Confederate Veterans plates, bowing to a ruling by a federal District Court that they were protected as free speech.
But in June, the Supreme Court ruled license plates were a form of government speech, and could be rejected by states; on Thursday, District Court Judge Marvin Garbis lifted the injunction, the Sun reports.
The order goes into effect Nov. 17, but it's unclear when the recall will begin, the Sun reports.
"I look forward to the day when these plates are no longer on the road," Attorney General Brian Frosh said, the Sun reports.
"This flag is a painful symbol that divides us, conjuring images of hate and subjugation. It has no place in any contemporary government use."
Virginia announced its recall of Confederate plates in August, and as of Oct. 4, it's been illegal to drive with them. But there's been little cooperation.
Of 1,600 Sons of Confederate Veterans license plates on the road, only 187 have been returned, TV station
WAVY reports.
"I can't fight on the battlefield like they did, but I can fight however I can in modern times and I will not give them plates up," Kevin Collier, who's commander of the Stonewall Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans and whose relatives fought in the Civil War, tells the station.
"Next thing you know, they're going to say you can't wear blue on Monday, you know, or you can't wear yellow on Thursday. Where's it going to end?"
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