|
Legal battle In 1971, the General Court, the state legislature of New Hampshire, mandated that the phrase appear on all non-commercial license plates, replacing "Scenic." In 1977, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of Wooley v. Maynard, 430 U.S. 705, that New Hampshire could not prosecute motorists who chose to hide part or all of the slogan. That ruling came about because George Maynard, a Jehovah's Witness, cut off "or die" from his plate for religious reasons. He was convicted of breaking a state law against altering license plates. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6–3 in his favor, saying the law required people to "use their private property as a 'mobile billboard' for the State's ideological message," and that the state's interest did not outweigh free speech principles. The case drew widespread attention, partly because of the irony involved with a government trying to deny someone the freedom to change a slogan that celebrates freedom. Similar mottos A similar motto from the American Revolutionary War was "Unite or Die". A possible source of such mottoes is Patrick Henry's famed March 23, 1775 speech to the House of Burgesses (the legislative body of the Virginia colony), which contained the following phrase: Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! A medal struck at Matthew Boulton's Soho Mint, as tokens of exchange for the Paris firm of Monneron Freres, 1791-92, has on its obverse the motto Vivre libres ou mourir (Live free or die in French). National mottos Use in Unix Live Free or Die is popular among Unix users, a group which also cherishes its independence. The popularity dates to the 1980s, when Armando Stettner of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) had a set of Unix license plates printed up and given away at a Usenix conference. They were modeled on the license plates in New Hampshire, where DEC's Unix Engineering Group (UEG) was headquarted. Stettner lived in New Hampshire at the time and owned a Toyota Celica Supra with the vanity license plate UNIX. When DEC came out with their own Unix version, Ultrix, they followed Stettner's lead and printed up a legion of Ultrix plates that were distributed at trade shows. | ||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||
 |
|
| |