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A federal judge has ordered a temporary stop to South Carolina's "I Believe" Christian license plate program.

Read more stories on this subject in our license plate topic page.The Americans United for Separation of Church and State had filed a request for the injunction in their legal battle with the state. The plates were to start coming out the middle of this month.

And so the forecasted expensive legal battle begins, and it's just where our increasingly scarce money should be going: Frivolous lawsuits.

Dear legislature: Please drop the program before we have to waste any more taxpayer money on an ideological crusade that we seem bound to lose, or be forced to expensively widen to all faiths.

Florida had the good sense not to go down this road.

Update December 11: The State is reporting that the S.C. DMV has not yet made a decision to try and overturn the ruling.