The only thing the all-male Sons of Confederate Veterans want is to honor their heroes—with historical reenactments, preservation of Confederate soldiers’ gravesites, genealogy services, and publications that highlight their heritage and sacrifice in their fight for freedom. And one way to honor their heroes is with specialty license plates depicting the Confederate flag, in a state with a long history of Confederate pride: Texas.

But Texas denied the group’s request at the behest of concerned citizens who found the flag design offensive. Now both camps will be facing off at the Supreme Court on Monday over whether the Constitution protects imagery and symbols on state-issued plates—even those the concerned citizenry may find unpleasant—as a form of free speech.

At first blush the question seems like a no-brainer, given the court’s strong stance against state efforts to suppress even the vilest forms of speech. But the law is not uniform across the country, and a good chunk of Americans—recall the debate surrounding the University of Oklahoma students expelled for racist chants—believe the government has leeway to sanction some expressive behavior. This case could prove a good teachable moment.

When the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles first considered the Sons of Confederate Veterans’ bid for the plates, the agency was clearly conflicted: It deadlocked in a four-to-four vote, with one member of the board mysteriously absent. The board then gave the public a chance to weigh in, and the comments were mostly negative. Taking the outcry into consideration, the board unanimously rejected the plates, explaining “that a significant portion of the public associate the confederate flag with organizations advocating expressions of hate directed toward people or groups that is demeaning to those people or groups.”

The board didn’t say what it meant by “demeaning,” but comments from the NAACP, church officials, and elected representatives brought to bear Texas’ own dark past of racism and oppression. Faced with the board’s rejection, Sons of Confederate Veterans sued Texas in federal court. After a setback early in the litigation, the group eventually won before the conservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. In his decision, U.S. Circuit Judge Edward Prado wrote that Texas engaged in “impermissible viewpoint discrimination”—that is, it targeted the Veterans’ because of the symbol they asked the state to portray in the license plate, which the public found distasteful.