PHOENIX — A federal judge upheld a state commission's denial of an anti-abortion group's request for a special "Choose Life" Arizona license plate.

U.S. District Judge Paul G. Rosenblatt said the Arizona Life Coalition failed to show that its constitutional rights for free speech and equal treatment under the law were violated by the Arizona License Plate Commission.

In a ruling issued on Sept. 26 and released yesterday, Rosenblatt said the commission acted reasonably while trying "to avoid the appearance (of) political favoritism in an otherwise nonpublic forum and maintained state neutrality on the issue, giving neither side a leg up in this hotly debated public question."

Supporters of the proposed special plate said they would appeal Rosenblatt's ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

"Disagreement with the 'Choose Life' message is not a valid reason to deny a license plate request," said Peter Gentala, a Center for Arizona Policy attorney who represents the coalition. "The license plate program was designed to help service organizations, not censor their speech."

The coalition submitted its original application in January 2002 and, after the commission denied the application, sued the state in September 2003.

Rosenblatt's ruling came in the form of a summary judgment, basically a pretrial verdict based on both sides' legal arguments.

Neither the U.S. Supreme Court nor the 9th Circuit, the federal circuit whose territory includes Arizona, have ruled on the free-speech implications of special license plates.

However, Rosenblatt relied on a 2002 ruling in which the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals set a four-part test to decide whether special plates are speech by government or by private entities. A finding that the speech was private would allow the government less leeway.

The 4th Circuit's ruling said South Carolina engaged in viewpoint discrimination when it refused to allow a special plate to include an emblem of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

That court's test includes determining a program's purpose, the degree of government control over the content of speech, the identity of the speaker and who bears ultimate responsibility for the content.

Applying the test to the Arizona issue, Rosenblatt said: "Due to the necessity of vehicle identification by state authorities, speech on state-approved, state-issued license plates is governmental in nature and constitutes a nonpublic forum from which access is selective rather than general."

The Arizona commission was created in 1997 to oversee a program for nonprofit organizations to seek authorization for special plates. The requesting organization must meet certain criteria and agree to cover the costs of developing the special plate, which is sold for an additional fee. The organization gets some of that extra money.

The commission has approved 11 special plates for organizations, though groups in recent years have sought to bypass the commission and get authorization from the Legislature. However, recent legislation to authorize special plates still requires the groups involved to pay development costs.

The U.S. Supreme Court in January declined to consider whether states may offer license plates with anti-abortion messages. The justices let stand a ruling by the Richmond, Va.-based 4th Circuit that said South Carolina's "Choose Life" plates violated the First Amendment because abortion-rights supporters weren't given a similar forum to express their beliefs.

In April, a panel of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sidestepped a similar case by ruling it was a tax issue that should be decided by state courts.