A licence plate displaying the Confederate flag has sparked a US Supreme Court battle over the right to free speech. Have "novelty" plates gone too far?
一张展示南部联盟旗帜的车牌点燃了一场美国最高法院关于言论自由权的论辩。“新奇的”车牌闹得太过火了吗？

Take a road trip across the US - anywhere - and you won't even need to stop or talk to the locals to know exactly what they most care about.
在美国境内自驾游的时候，无论去哪，你都不用停车或者和当地人攀谈，就能知道他们最关注什么。

Americans wear their hearts on their bumpers. Colourful licence plates celebrating everything from the Boy Scouts to the soft drink Dr Pepper appear in the rear view mirror.
因为美国人已经把他们的想法挂在车的保险杠上了。五花八门的车牌上什么都可能出现：童子军，胡椒博士软饮等等都会出现在后视镜上。

For outsiders it is fascinating and bizarre to see the range of issues by which the proud motorist separates themselves from the crowd.
对于旁观者而言，看到这些标新立异与众不同的人们自豪于他们的想法会觉得这是一件非常酷非常奇异的事情。

Anti-abortion slogans like "Choose Life" compete with "Trees are cool" and "Mighty Fine Burgers".
反对堕胎者们的车牌口号是：选择生命，用来和环保者的“树就是酷”以及和吃货们的“汉堡第一赞”一较高下。

Goofy personalised registrations like DUUUDE and BOO81ES park side-by-side with sombre memorials to 9/11 victims and cries to save the environment.
当然也有像“本大公子”和“我爱大胸”这种彰显二缺的个性标语同沉痛悼念911事件遇难者或者保护环境的标语车牌并列停放的情况。

But among this odd parade - there is one plate which has provoked a controversy like no other.
但是这些稀奇古怪的车牌们并没有像那张国旗车牌一样引发什么论战。

The design features the Confederate Flag and the words "Sons of Confederate Veterans 1896".
因为这张车牌上是一面南部联盟国旗和一段文字“1896年南部联盟士兵遗孤组织”。

It was rejected, twice, by the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, who ruled that "a significant portion of the public" find the flag offensive, due to its historical association with slavery.
这张车牌被德克萨斯州机动车辆管理部门两次拒批，被裁决为“由于旗帜涉及奴隶制历史问题，对大部分公众而言是一种冒犯。”

"Why should we as Texans want to be reminded of a legalised system of involuntary servitude, dehumanisation, rape, mass murder?" asked state Senator Royce West at a public hearing about the plates in 2011.
2011年，德克萨斯州议员罗伊斯·韦斯特在一次听证会上提到这些车牌时说：“为什么我们德克萨斯州人要被迫想起那个充斥着奴役、反人类行为、强奸、大屠杀的法律制度呢？”

This could easily have been the end of the matter - rude and abusive slogans are vetoed every day by the 50 state motoring departments, each of whom has slightly different criteria for acceptability.
这本该让这件事简单地画上句号了——50个州的机动车辆管理部门每天驳回很多粗俗的和具有侮辱性质标语的车牌，尽管各自的界定标准略有不同。

But what happened next drove the issue of "novelty" licence plates straight up the highway out of Texas and into the highest court in the land.