Personalized license plates are under fire as some denied requests head to the courts to see where the line is in public free speech.
The purpose of a license plate is to identify the vehicle and the state in which the vehicle is registered. Some states offer personalized tags, sometimes known as vanity plates, for an extra fee so the driver can incorporate a favorite cause or saying on the plate. Sometimes the plate might display an image that is associated with a a charity that plate proceeds go to.
A denied tag in Oklahoma has recently reach national news headlines because the owner believes that he was wrongly denied a personalized plate. The plate read “LGBTALY” – which is an abbreviated version of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender ally.
“I’m holding out for the license plate I deserve to have,” John Patrick Keefe said to NewsOK. “If the tax commission denies it, we are prepared to go to the state Supreme Court. I don’t care how much it costs.”
Paula Ross, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Tax Commission, said requests are approved or denied by the rules and decisions are not political, according to NewsOK. The commission can revoke an already issued plate if a complaint is received on a particular plate.
The commission staff denies requests that are deemed offensive to the public if a personalized plate violates one of six conditions: carries a sexual connotation; expresses contempt, ridicule or superiority based on race, gender, politics, ethnic heritage or religion; is vulgar, derogatory, profane or obscene; refers to bodily functions, bodily fluids or intimate body parts; refers to alcohol, drugs or gangs; or would otherwise be inappropriate for display on a state-issued license plate.
Keefe said when he asked why his plate was denied, he was told the phrase was sexual in nature. He wants to turn his denial into a conversation about gay rights in Oklahoma.
“I think that people are getting comfortable and their status quos are finally being challenged,” sophomore Sumner Brock said. “They do not like that, so they are throwing a fit to get things back to where they are comfortable and things are okay.”
Keefe is appealing the decision and plans to appear at a hearing before an administrative law judge.
“I feel like there needs to be more conversation and community involvement in civilized discussion rather than running to the court system or just venting your frustration,” Brock said.
Personalized tags are also being challenged in Texas, where the Sons of Confederate Veterans were denied personalized tags with their logo featuring a Confederate flag. According to the Atlantic, Texas rejected the license plate because “a significant portion of the public associates the Confederate flag with organizations advocating expressions of hate directed toward people or groups that is demeaning to those people or groups.”
According to Brock, these personalized plate cases are the exceptions to the rule.
“I think in extreme cases it should be limited,” Brock said. “I stand pretty strongly with the conviction that the government should not impose necessarily my Christian beliefs or Oklahoma’s Christian beliefs or moral beliefs. People should be able to do what they want and it is not necessarily a good thing when the government is over-censoring things. It is a tricky line to walk because some things should definitely be censored and not allowed on license plates if it is really harmful, but that could go too far.”
Nine states offer Sons of Confederate Veterans plates, although Maryland and Virginia only offer them under court orders. Texas is offering the SCV a bumper sticker instead of a license plate.
“I don’t personally see an issue with it,” sophomore Chelsae Folsom said. “I think there are worse things that could be put on a car – like those little decals that are put on the back of cars of the little kid peeing on a cross or something. I find those to be more offensive than I do license plates.”
The SCV took their case to the Supreme Court who will now decide if the first amendment was violated by Texas’ denial. The courts will decide if license plates are private speech by the owner of the vehicle or public speech by the government that issues the plates.
“They have a right to do that but it is also a petty reason to argue about,” Brock said. “You spend a lot of money going to the courts and it is a license plate. There is the bigger ideas of free speech that goes along with that but it is still a piece of metal.”
There are nearly 50,000 personalized tags registered in Oklahoma, according to NewsOK. Each application is considered by a tax commission staffer and then reviewed by a second person. More than 2,100 phrases have been denied.
“I think it is a lot of older generations that don’t know the lingo like we do, like LOL or something,” Folsom said. “I think some can be interesting, like I saw one a couple of years ago that was a red Thunderbird that said ‘401k.’ There is humor in some of them.”
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