The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of Maynard. Over the years, people have pointed at the irony in inmates stamping out the motto on license plates. Other famous people have invoked the motto and pondered its meaning. Author Ernest Hebert titled a book Live Free or Die. If I say 'Live Free or Die,' people interpret that according to their own politics.
Some people are fearful and suspicious of it - it sounds like a conservative call to arms.
The theme of his book is misunderstanding, and a young woman dies because of it. We all die, and it sounds like we live forever. Freedom is worth dying for and thousands have done so. Activist Arnie Alpert at the American Friends Service Committee used to associate the motto with Thomson and ultra right-wing politics. Then in the mid-1980s he attended a conference at Dartmouth against South African apartheid.