Free Republic

A Virginia man has lost an appeal to keep his personalized license plate which reads “FTRU MPK” because it appears to contain an obscene message about President Donald Trump. Donald Butler, a former teacher and lawyer, has the personalized plates on his Lexus SUV. Butler originally received a letter from the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles in May, ordering him to turn over his plates because they violated state guidelines. In August, Butler argued his case in an informal conference at DMV headquarters. Now, DMV Commissioner Richard Holcomb has issued a four-page ruling, dissecting the argument over the meaning of...

New York woman arrested for driving with a handmade license plate. On Friday, CBS News reported that Amanda Schweickert, 28, of Sardinia is in trouble for using a fake license plate. She is not supposed to be driving because she has a suspended registration and no car insurance. However, it did not stop her from using a little creativity. She decided to create her own license plate. Authorities say she used a piece of cardboard and painted blue text on it. Although the plate didn’t look too dreadful, it fooled no one. On Wednesday, a police officer pulled Schweickert over...

Though it might insult police officers and make them want to pull him over, a New Hampshire man's car could soon be sporting a license plate reading “COPSLIE.” David Montenegro, whose legal name is "human," sued the state’s Division of Motor Vehicles after officials rejected his vanity license plate application on the grounds that it accused police officers of "moral turpitude." Citing DMV rules, the officials said “COPSLIE” was offensive to the good taste of a reasonable person. On Wednesday, New Hampshire’s top court struck down the DMV's “good taste” standard as vague and in violation of the state constitution's...

US Judge Bans Christian Car Number Plate [Pic in URL] A US judge has ordered South Carolina not to issue car number plates that feature a Christian cross in front of a stained glass window along with the slogan "I Believe". 10 Nov 2009 Cameron Currie, the district judge, said the plate, similar to the one pictured, was unconstitutional because it violated the First Amendment. Photo: AP The southern state's legislature had already approved the licence plate, but Cameron Currie, the district judge, said the plate was unconstitutional because it violated the First Amendment, which requires the separation of church...

It was an odd question to hear from a mechanic. "You're a Jew hater?" Uh, no, Frank Gumina replied. So the mechanic called Gumina around to the back of his car, a 1974 Volkswagen Thing. The license plate read: HA8 JWZ. "And I still stared at it," Gumina said. "I guess I don't pay attention to the letters and stuff." Others sure did. And they read it: "Hate Jews." Gumina, who lives on Lake Wildwood, said he'd gotten a few odd looks before the mechanic sounded things out for him. He'd even had a stranger or two at the grocery...

Arno, a 21- year veteran of the NYPD, wanted to add vanity license plates reading "GETOSAMA" to the 1993 Ford Aerostar he had already hand-painted red, white and blue. But New York's DMV red-lighted the anti-Usama bin Laden plates, banning them under an agency regulation that prohibits anything "obscene, lewd, lascivious, derogatory to a particular ethnic or other group or patently offensive."

One guy is going head-to-head with a California DMV over his head-turning vanity license plate. There are tens of thousands of these plates on the streets. But before it gets onto your car, it has to pass the screeners here at the DMV. It can't offensive or indecent. But there are some mistakes that hit the streets and they get about one hundred calls a year on that.

Letters of complaint about crude, off-color New York State tags SEPTEMBER 1--With the last big summer weekend here, it's time to pile into the car, hit the road, and scope out the offending license plates on your fellow motorists's ride. As with every other state, crafty New Yorkers are determined to slip decidedly distinctive tags past the personalized plate censors at the Department of Motor Vehicles (which provided the below letters to us following a Freedom of Information request). And, sadly, there seems to be an equal number of Empire State residents ready to snitch to the DMV when they...

A Tacoma woman says she feels violated by a complaint about her vanity plate. It simply reads: "John 3-16" But someone found the Bible verse offensive and now the state is deciding whether she can keep the plate. "The verse in the Bible says 'For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son,' " says Jane Milhans. To her, John 3:16 is a message of love, and a great vanity plate. But now, someone has told the state Jane's plate is offensive. "My first reaction was I was in shock," she said. Jane says she's had...

Jim Cara thought it would be really funny to get a license plate reading "NOTAG" for his motorcycle. That's until the plate came in the mail with over 200 unpaid parking tickets, reports the News-Journal of Wilmington, Del.