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State looks to pull anti-Bush
license plate
Kevin Woster
Rapid
City Journal
Saturday May 05, 2007
RAPID CITY -- Heather Moriah loves the personalized license plates
on her silver Prius encouraging the impeachment of President George
W. Bush.
But somebody doesn’t agree. And that somebody complained
to the state. Now, the South Dakota Division of Motor Vehicles is
trying to recall the plates -- which read MPEACHW. And if Moriah
doesn’t turn them in voluntarily, the state might send law-enforcement
officers to pick them up.
Even so, she’s not immediately inclined to cooperate.
“I don’t think I’m going to play,” Moriah
said Thursday afternoon. “The plate isn’t in poor taste.
It‘s not sexual in nature or pornographic. To me, a political
message should not be considered offensive.”
But Division of Motor Vehicles director Deb Hillmer said Thursday
that the law clearly gives the state authority to recall the plates
and have them forcibly removed if necessary. And although only one
person complained about Moriah’s political statement, that’s
all it takes to recall a set of vanity plates, Hillmer said.
“I’m following the letter of the law,” she said.
“It’s offensive to someone and not in good taste and
decency. And the plates are the property of the state of South Dakota.”
State law declares motor vehicle licenses plates to be the property
of the state as long as the plates are valid. The law also allows
personalized plates with as many as seven letters for an extra $25
fee. But it gives DMV officials the right to refuse to issue “any
letter combination which carries connotations offensive to good
taste and decency.”
Hillmer said MPEACHW meets that criterion. The plates never would
have been issued if DMV officials had caught their meaning at the
time Moriah applied, Hillmer said.
“This was one that we apparently missed when it came through
originally, and we received a complaint from an individual that
found it offensive,” she said, declining to identify the individual
or provide the contents of the complaint. “I don’t think
we ever would have issued it if we’d have picked up on what
it was inferring.”
Moriah said she bought the 2005 Prius late last summer and fitted
it with personalized plates similar to those her partner, Curt Finnegan,
had on his blue 2004 Prius. His plates actually read: IMPCH-W.
Moriah said has received plenty of positive reactions in public
to her plates and that negative responses have been rare. So she
was surprised to receive the April 18 letter from the DMV announcing
the recall and giving her 10 days to turn in the plates at the Pennington
County Treasurer’s Office or the DMV office in Pierre.
The letter said DMV would issue a refund on the months remaining
on Moriah’s license.
She is hesitant to give up the plates, however, because she believes
her free-speech rights are being unnecessarily limited.
“It’s kind of sad to me,” she said. “For
one person to be able to say they’re offended because it’s
different from their political beliefs seems really arbitrary. And
I don’t think the law is very clear about what ‘offensive’
means.”
Hillmer said the law gives the state great latitude in making that
determination. Moriah is free to exercise her free-speech rights
in ways that don’t involve state property or implied state
sanction of a given message, Hillemr said.
“They have every right to use that free speech, but they
need to do it with a bumper sticker,” she said. “That
plate is property of South Dakota. And that (message) is not something
the state should advocate.”
It wouldn’t matter if the political message or the president
were different, it would be inappropriate on a state plate, Hillmer
said.
Moriah has contacted the American Civil Liberties Union, which
intends to protest the recall in a letter to the state. Moriah said
it’s unlikely the ACLU will pursue legal action, in part because
she is planning a move to Pennsylvanian in the next couple of months.
Finnegan already has moved there and replaced his South Dakota
plates for Pennsylvania plates, Moriah said. Moriah hopes to leave
in June or July, with her plates still intact. Hillmer said it might
not work out that way.
“We may have law enforcement go pick them up if we receive
more complaints about it,” she said. “If she returns
them, we’ll make her new plates. If we have to go pick them
up, we probably won’t.”
Hillmer has been with DMV for more than 20 years. She remembers
five or six instances when so-called vanity plates were recalled.
One of them said “SNIPER” and another “OLDFART.”
Moriah is the only person to complain about a recall, Hillmer said.
Rapid City lawyer Patrick Duffy said there’s plenty of reason
to complain. Duffy, who has worked on key civil rights cases involving
American Indian voting issues, said action by the state means that
any personalized plate must be recalled because of a single complaint,
no matter what the message.
“What this means is that every atheist can now wipe out anything
that seems to refer to God,” Duffy said. “Will vanity
plates for members of the armed forces suddenly be declared offensive
if they offend a single pacifist? It’s absolutely preposterous.”
Even obscenity must be judged by the mores and standards of a community,
not just one offended individual, Duffy said.
“Here, all we need is one lone citizen who is apparently
invested with the complete authority to determine what is good taste
and decency for all the rest of us,” he said. “It seems
a little tyrannical to me.”
INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
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