Fansided

Supreme Court Justice references college football, NASCAR in court decision

By Jonathan Bass

Oct 11, 2014; Waco, TX, USA; A view of the college football playoff national championship trophy before the game between the Baylor Bears and the TCU Horned Frogs at McLane Stadium. The Bears defeat Horned Frogs 61-58. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 11, 2014; Waco, TX, USA; A view of the college football playoff national championship trophy before the game between the Baylor Bears and the TCU Horned Frogs at McLane Stadium. The Bears defeat Horned Frogs 61-58. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports /
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No corner of Earth is safe from college football, not even the United States Supreme Court.

College football is a wrecking machine. There is no dwelling safe from its reach. Your home, your place of employment, your phones, your radio: it’s just pigskin city all across the land. We’re to the point now college football has even infiltrated the United States Supreme Court.

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In a discussion about whether wording on specialized license plates in Texas constitutes neutral speech or official government dictation, Justice Samuel Alito offered up the following opinion:

"If a car with a plate that says “Rather Be Golfing” passed by at 8:30 am on a Mon- day morning, would you think: “This is the official policy of the State—better to golf than to work?” If you did your viewing at the start of the college football season and you saw Texas plates with the names of the University of Texas’s out-of-state competitors in upcoming games— Notre Dame, Oklahoma State, the University of Okla- homa, Kansas State, Iowa State—would you assume that the State of Texas was officially (and perhaps treasonously) rooting for the Longhorns’ opponents? And when a car zipped by with a plate that reads “NASCAR – 24 Jeff Gordon,” would you think that Gordon (born in California, raised in Indiana, resides in North Carolina)1 is the official favorite of the State government?"

Hard not to love that, right? It has all the snarkiness of a fall Saturday debate. Taking a little mess, just oozing sarcasm. Even better is that he tossed Golden Boy Jeff Gordon into the mix. Perhaps the most divisive NASCAR driver ever – when he came up, his boyish California background was an immediate affront to the down-home roots of the sport. Alito really hammered it home: You think all of Texas stands behind Gordon? Pffft.

I’m not going to feign understanding of this entire case (just a humble sports blogger scraping the news desk), but it’s a pretty interesting read if you have the time. If for no other reason than Alito’s boiling down to the everyman debate and wrapping first amendment rights around NASCAR, college football and “I’d rather be golfing” plates.

[Reddit]

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