Confederate Flag License Plate Creates Civil War at a Delaware Agency

March 27, 2012 12:19 PM

Reporting David Madden

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By David Madden

DOVER, Del. (CBS) — An employee in Delaware’s transportation department is being threatened with a one-day suspension because his personal truck sports a Confederate flag license plate on the front bumper.

It’s an issue that has caught the attention of the ACLU.

Tom Drummond has already received a written reprimand, and his union has taken the threatened suspension to grievance.

He says he has worked for DelDOT for three years and no one complained about his truck in the employee parking lot, or the plate, until recently.

Richard Morse, legal director for Delaware’s ACLU, has written DelDOT suggesting they back off.

“Flag symbols are protected speech,” Morse tells KYW Newsradio. “The Constitution allows someone have a Confederate flag license plate on his personal vehicle, and you don’t lose that right if you work for the state.”

DelDOT, in an e-mail, says a fellow worker viewed the plate as “a form of harassment” and the agency acted on that premise alone.

They’re reviewing the ACLU’s letter before going further.

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Confederate Flag License Plate Creates Civil War at a Delaware Agency

Jeff Plummer

Confederate flags are honorable and legitimate symbols of our American history. To some the flag represents hate. To them we offer a hand of sympathy and understanding. Their ignorance is not a reflection on themselves as an indictment on those institutions entrusted with the serious task of education higher education and news dissemination .The confederate flag has a deeper meaning that transcends their use by ignorant folk. Keep it flying. Jeff Plummer

Ed Lorah III

Keep the conferated flag flying Ed Lorah III

Steve

I have a confederate on a pole at my house here in delaware big deal, i think someone is out for this guy.
Steelman

Forget slavery. That flag had been dead and buried until the 1950s and the birth of the civil rights movement. It was used a rallying point for the “southern way” of doing things. This is 2012. Don’t we have more to worry about than some guy’s plate on his personal vehicle?
edward dye

Thats what happens when your stuck in the past. Slavery ended a long time ago, it’s time for people to move on and stop complaing.
ZMEEKER

Some U. S. citizens cannot handle or understand the full spectrum their constitutional rights.
CalJack

a form of harassment? what, did the license plate start screaming obscenities at them? jeez. grow up people. its just a license plate. if the guy is running around the office promoting slavery there is another whole issue… but this is just ridiculous.