LOUISVILLE, Ky. from www.fox41.com — A Louisville group that lobbies against strip clubs, the sex trade and the pornography industry has filed litigation in a Franklin County court after the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet denied its request to create a specialty license plate bearing the motto, “In God We Trust.”

Reclaim Our Culture Kentuckiana (ROCK) has made headlines in the past for protests against adult businesses, such as the Theatre X Drive-in in Clarksville, Ind.

The organization’s Web site says it was created after a 2004 study that identified Louisville among the top five cities to have clusters of adult businesses. The site says ROCK was founded, “to defend and sustain the founding principles upon which our country was built” as well as “a wholesome culture in which all families can flourish.”

In Nov. 2007, the group filled out an application with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet to create a specialty license plate under its name. The Transportation Cabinet creates various specialty plates with unique designs and graphics to draw attention to non-profit organizations in Kentucky. Motorists can purchase the plates and make a donation to the non-profit in question. Organizations on specialty plates include the Louisville Zoo, the Kentucky Dental Association, the Kentucky Colonels and the Fraternal Order of Police.

ROCK’s Web site has a picture of the proposed plate, which shows an American flag behind the silhouette of the state of Kentucky and the words “In God We Trust” along the bottom.

MaryAnn Gramig, director of policy and operations for ROCK, told Fox41.com that motorists would have paid a fee to the Transportation Department for the license plate, and would then have the option of donating $10 to a fund that would go toward anti-pornography programs administered ROCK.

She said that fund would be audited according to state guidelines.

“I think it’s a very good practice,” Gramig said. “It’s a way to oversee that funds are being spent in an appropriate manner.”

But the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet denied ROCK’s request to create a specialty plate. The Cabinet’s attorney, Allan Weiss, later told a Franklin County court that the reason for the denial was that the plate was designed to promote a particular religion — namely Christianity.

The Kentucky statute that establishes the eligibility of groups to create specialty license plates is Kentucky Revised Statute (KRS) 186.164. It requires that all specialty plates, among other thing, 1) be created by non-profits based in Kentucky, 2) contain no discrimination against any race, color, religion, sex or national origin, 3) not be affiliated with any political party, and 4) not be created by a group that, “have as its primary purpose the promotion of any specific faith, religion or antireligion.

It is the last criteria that the Transportation Cabinet accuses ROCK of violating.

“It was the judgement of the special plate committee in this cabinet that it just did not meet the statutory criteria that this panel laid out,” said Chuck Wolfe, a spokesman for the Transportation Cabinet.

Wolfe said that, in addition to the religious overtones, the proposed license plate was too ambiguous.

“It just wasn’t clear how the national motto — somebody just seeing that on a license plate would be able to tell from that that this is an organization with the stated mission of being opposed to pornography and the sex industry,” Wolfe said.

He pointed to other specialty license plates that he said had more obvious overtones, such as the breast cancer awareness plate, the purpose of which was clear to drivers, he said, because it was pink.

“A reasonable person can see a plate like that and figure out what cause or organization is being promoted,” he said.

Gramig freely admits that the statute clearly bars organization that are primarily religious in nature from creating specialty plates.

“The statute does say that your principle purpose — your primary purpose — cannot be the advancement of a particular religion,” she said.

She added, however, that, while ROCK is a “faith based” organization, religious proselytizing is not what the group is about.

“We exist to defend and preserve the founding principles that American was founded on,” she said, as well as to end the “harm associated with pornography” and the exploitation of women and children.

She admitted that she believes that what she calls America’s “Judeo Christian heritage” is part of the “founding principles” her group aims to protect. A quick glance at the organization’s Web site at www.reclaimourculture.org revealed no obvious religious references — instead, the home page featured several news headlines about the perceived dangers of strip clubs, as well as testimonials from former players in the porn industry about what they say is the downside of strip clubs.

This week, attorneys for ROCK filed a memorandum of law in support of a motion for summary judgement, demanding that a Franklin Circuit Court order the Transportation Cabinet to allow the creation of the specialty plate.

“Whether motivated by political expediency or simply faulty reasoning, the Transportation Cabinet improperly denied Reclaim Our Culture Kentuckiana’s (ROCK’s) specialty license plate application, even though ROCK’s application met all requisite statutory criteria for issuance of the plate,” the memorandum states. “The Cabinet’s purported grounds for the denial are inconsistent with the controlling statutory language and the Cabinet’s own prior decisions under this statute, are wholly unsupported by the record, and are contrary to law.”

For his part, Wolfe says the Cabinet is adamant that the proposed specialty plate “does not meet the criteria” outlined by the statute.

He says the Transportation Cabinet will file a response to the memorandum.

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