As the famous rock’n’rollers once sang: You can’t always get what you want. This is especially true for personalized license plates. Signs cannot be displayed something vulgar about a social movement group you disagree with, scary or sexual references, references to drugs or crime and often negative things about the sitting president. An Ohio driver is suing the state, saying it violates his free speech.
Jeffrey Wonser of Licking County, Ohio, is suing the state Department of Motor Vehicles over the phrase “F46 LGB.” However, the bureau denied his request to issue the license plate, as Clevleand.com explained:
…it implied that some could understand it to mean F*** the 46th President of the United States, Joe Biden, while LGB could stand for “Let’s Go Brandon,” a facetious term that has since become popular a similar meaning has some American conservatives.
This isn’t the first time Wonser has tried to get this license plate. The bureau says it rejected the request for Wonser’s license plate “multiple times in 2022.” Although it has been denied, Wonser and his attorney, Brian Bardwell, swear that the sign has no meaning, even if his lawsuit – 18 pages in total – has no meaning Be specific about why he chose the expression. He rejects other interpretations of the phrase, such as saying it’s a dig at the LGBTQ community, but Wonser and Bardwell still don’t say exactly what the phrase means.
“We intentionally don’t say…The message can be whatever people want it to be,” he said. What is clear, Bardwell said, is that the BMV is acting arbitrarily in enforcing its guidelines, which was established in a similar lawsuit that led to a court settlement in 2003.
Wonser is now suing the bureau, claiming the denial was a violation of his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights and caused him “economic and emotional harm.” I’m not sure how not having a vanity plate can hurt someone’s feelings enough to cause them economic loss, but he seems like a very sensitive guy.
Wonser and his lawyer play the “whataboutism” card, essentially saying that the FBI chooses which records to approve. His lawsuit points to examples of approval of cosmetic labels such as “FDT” and “FU TRMP.” The lawsuit also alleges the bureau rejected the license plate of a BMW E46 owner who submitted “EFORTY6,” which was interpreted as “F*** 46” and subsequently rejected.
The Ohio DMV reserves the right to reject any sign that it determines is in poor taste or offensive. Wonser can claim that his license plate can be interpreted however he wants, but the DMV says this is smarter News5Cleveland:
“KIABOYZ,” “5UCK IT,” “I H8 TOL” and “FOX SAKE” were among more than 700 license plate applications rejected in 2023.
“People do things the other way around and replace S with 5 to get by,” explained Charlie Norman, Ohio BMV registrar.
Norman leads the team that he says is scouring the darkest depths of the internet to keep up with the times and figure out what some of these requests mean.
“The committee is pretty good and they catch a lot,” he said. “It’s really a fraction of a percent [that don’t get approved.] 99.5% of personalized plate requests are approved.”
His claim of First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment violations is unlikely to hold water. Both amendments address laws against speech and states passing laws that conflict with the U.S. Constitution, but there are no laws being violated here. However, the state has an interest in which phrases appear on the license plates it issues for official purposes. Nevada, for example, rejects license plates this hatred of Californians.
Anyway, good luck with your lawsuit and hurt feelings going forward, Wonser