NJ woman's rejected atheist license plate violates First Amendment

[ZLoth]

I pass a guy every day who has "NCC 1701", which is just wrong on so many levels.

Is it a random license plate?

Is that for some Enterprising individual who is on a Star Trek?

[agentsteel53]

Then there is the case from back in the 70s where some religious nut who felt living as a slave preferable to death made New Hampshire allow him to cover "Live Free or Die". 

I cover the website on my new CA plates because I find it to be aesthetically offensive, and I'm also not renting out ad space on my truck for free.  then again, I've used white retroreflective sheeting to change the plate to the next-most-recent specification, so people are not at all likely to notice that there is something going on.

[hbelkins]

When Kentucky came out with a license plate that featured the famous twin spires of Churchill Downs, it made stickers available to people who wished to cover that artwork because they were opposed to gambling.

[Brandon]

I seem to remember plates that said IDIOT a few years back.

In Illinois?

LOL!

Seriously, Illinois has a fairly big contingent of vehicles with vanity plates and personalized plates (two different types of plates).

Vanity plates, those with 1-7 letters or up to 3 numbers only, are $94 more than the $101 regular registration.
Personalized plates, those with both numbers an letters, are a mere $47 more than the $101 regular registration.

[agentsteel53]

Vanity plates, those with 1-7 letters or up to 3 numbers only, are $94 more than the $101 regular registration.
Personalized plates, those with both numbers an letters, are a mere $47 more than the $101 regular registration.

I don't understand.  "1-7 letters or up to 3 numbers only" is a subset of "both numbers and letters", but is $47 more? 

[Brandon]

Vanity plates, those with 1-7 letters or up to 3 numbers only, are $94 more than the $101 regular registration.
Personalized plates, those with both numbers an letters, are a mere $47 more than the $101 regular registration.

I don't understand.  "1-7 letters or up to 3 numbers only" is a subset of "both numbers and letters", but is $47 more? 

It's an "or" thing.  It's $47 more for a plate like "8THEIST", but $94 more for plates like "123" and "ATHEIST", no letters or no numbers.

[roadman]

I pass a guy every day who has "NCC 1701", which is just wrong on so many levels.

Let me guess.  He drives a Plymouth Reliant.

[agentsteel53]

Let me guess.  He drives a Plymouth Reliant.

I don't get it.  but attempting to google it resulted in this, which is one of the least useful websites I've ever come across.

http://regator.com/p/210367786/the_wrath_of_khan_and_the_plymouth_reliant/

It's an "or" thing.  It's $47 more for a plate like "8THEIST", but $94 more for plates like "123" and "ATHEIST", no letters or no numbers.

I would like to know the porkery that got into that one.  the Letter Number Cegenation Lobby is powerful in Illinois.

[Takumi]

I cover the website on my new CA plates because I find it to be aesthetically offensive, and I'm also not renting out ad space on my truck for free.  then again, I've used white retroreflective sheeting to change the plate to the next-most-recent specification, so people are not at all likely to notice that there is something going on.

I'm probably going to do the same with the plates for my next two cars. Virginia recently added the "Virginia Is For Lovers" logo and website to their standard issue plates and I'd rather have just the blue/white without any graphics.

[agentsteel53]

I'm probably going to do the same with the plates for my next two cars. Virginia recently added the "Virginia Is For Lovers" logo and website to their standard issue plates and I'd rather have just the blue/white without any graphics.

email me if you want me to mail you some small swatches of reflective sheeting.  I've always got ends floating around.

[roadman]

Let me guess.  He drives a Plymouth Reliant.

I don't get it.  but attempting to google it resulted in this, which is one of the least useful websites I've ever come across.
http://regator.com/p/210367786/the_wrath_of_khan_and_the_plymouth_reliant/

In The Wrath of Kahn (the second, and IMHO the best, Star Trek movie), the hijacked starship that attacks the Enterprise is named the USS Reliant.  I'll admit it was a subtle reference.

[agentsteel53]

In The Wrath of Kahn (the second, and IMHO the best, Star Trek movie), the hijacked starship that attacks the Enterprise is named the USS Reliant.  I'll admit it was a subtle reference.

heh.  I actually remembered that, but somehow my mind had "USS Reliant" and "Plymouth Reliant" stored in such divergent places that it never made the connection that both were the same word.

[Brandon]

It's an "or" thing.  It's $47 more for a plate like "8THEIST", but $94 more for plates like "123" and "ATHEIST", no letters or no numbers.

I would like to know the porkery that got into that one.  the Letter Number Cegenation Lobby is powerful in Illinois.

Beats me, but, like Delaware, lower number plates have also been handed out to the politically connected, as have single and double letter plates.

Not Much On Their Plates

License plate 21 has been in Ohs' family for half a century, ever since his great-uncle, Edward J. Barrett, was Illinois secretary of state. In that post, Barrett oversaw the production and distribution of license plates. And, like secretaries of state before and since, he took the opportunity to use the low-number plates as gifts for friends and family, starting with himself (plate 21) and his wife, Jeanne (plate 22).

Barrett kept 21 when he left state government and became Cook County clerk, and, after his death, the plate was passed down to his sister-in-law, then to his niece and finally to his niece's son Ryan. (Plate 22 represented more of a political bequest, going to Barrett's ally, Joseph P. Griffin, a former treasurer of the Illinois Democratic Committee.)

Politics, particularly in Illinois, is a game of favors. And low-number plates are a special kind of favor. For one thing, they don't cost a politician's campaign fund anything. For another, they're not going to be the subject of great scandal because they bestow no direct monetary advantage on the recipient.

But low-number plates are gifts of good will that keep on giving: Every time car owners look at those low-number plates, the odds are they think fondly of the politician from whom the plates came. There is, however, one problem. Those who get the low-number plates don't like to give them up. They hang on to them until death, and, often, their relatives find ways to keep the plates in the family.

Not to worry. Over the years, Illinois secretaries of state have solved the problem in several creative ways. One was to issue a new set of plates beginning with a zero (01, 02, 03 . . . ). Later, two zeros were added at the front to create another new set of numbers, and then three zeros and so on.

Except for the single- and double-digit plates, the ones with the highest prestige are those with two characters (two letters or a letter and number combination) and, even more sought after, those with just a single letter.

In fact, shortly before he left the secretary of state's office for the governor's mansion in 1991, Jim Edgar distributed those single-letter plates to a host of friends, ranging from his personal cardiologist to the finance chairman of his gubernatorial campaign.

Well, actually, Edgar handed out only 25 of the 26 plates.

He didn't assign the plate featuring the letter E to anyone. Instead, that plate was stored away for eight years -- reserved for his own eventual use as ex-Gov. Edgar.

Some of those with low-number and other elite plates are loath to credit their political connections. ("It was luck," says Springfield builder-developer Frank Vala of obtaining license plate V.)

Not Don Stephens.

Stephens, the only mayor that Rosemont has had in its 42-year history, explains how it works:

"I had lunch one time with Jim Edgar when he was secretary of state, and I said, `If you ever have one of those low numbers come up, I'd like it,' and, one day, he called up, and I had one."

It was No. 34.

Several years later, George Ryan was secretary of state and was planning a new series of plates with a single letter and a single number. So Ryan's chief of staff, Scott Fawell, gave Stephens a call. "He told me they were doing this and asked me if I wanted S1, and I said, `Yeah.' "

Of course, the reason Stephens was having lunch with Edgar and getting calls from Ryan's aide is that he is a master fundraiser and the head of one of the most potent political organizations in the state.

Although a Republican, Stephens is also friendly with Democrats. And giving him distinctive license plates has been a way for the GOP leadership to keep him happy.

How's that for license plates.  Gotta love the bipartisanship too.

[Pete from Boston]

Massachusetts has a low-number-plate lottery each year to thwart such favoritism.  There is a low-number-plate-drawing breakfast each year, and I have often considered going just to see who goes to such a thing.

[agentsteel53]

Massachusetts has a low-number-plate lottery each year to thwart such favoritism.  There is a low-number-plate-drawing breakfast each year, and I have often considered going just to see who goes to such a thing.

I think plate 1 has been in the same family since the beginning.



California issues them just like any other vanity plate.  a friend of mine who collects license plates has 27 and 55 on his cars.  he regularly tries registering various low numbers just to see if they are available.

[formulanone]

I recall some car in Maryland who had "D" as his license plate.

I don't think I've ever seen less than two characters on a Florida plate, except for Consuls.

[SP Cook]

In WV, the gov gets "1" and "ONE" (we had a long forgotten ex-gov who got "EX ONE" ). 2-2000 are given out by the gov.  On the rare party shift in the gov's office, they actually send troopers out with regular plates and orders to confiscate the special ones and deliver them to their new owners.  Legislators and some other functionaries get a plate the replaces the idiotic "Wild Wonderful" with "House" or whatever.   Gov also can give out "G 2 thru G 200" (motorcycle plates all start with "G") and "B 2 thru 200" (larger than an F-150 or equilivant sized trucks get plates that start with "B"). 

I use a frame to cover up up the idiotic slogan.  As a side note when my daughter was in school in NC, NC would ticket a car with a frame that covered any part of the state name, or any sticker on the car, including out of state cars. 

BTW, the NCC 1701 (which is not a regular issue) is on a 20 plus year old Acura.

In WV, rather than getting any of the several categories of antique or classic plates, if the car is older than a 73 (the year WV began to use "permanent" plates with renewal stickers, rather than a new plate each year) and you can find a plate for the make year, you can use that.  They print your "real" plate number on a piece of paper in the glove box, to which you attach the renewal stickers.

[Takumi]

email me if you want me to mail you some small swatches of reflective sheeting.  I've always got ends floating around.

I will, thanks. I'll need at least one by the end of May. Since one of them is a 1991, it'll only be on the car for 18 months or so. I'm getting an antique plate for it in 2016. Hopefully Virginia will go back to its classic plain blue-on-white by then.

[agentsteel53]

I will, thanks. I'll need at least one by the end of May. Since one of them is a 1991, it'll only be on the car for 18 months or so. I'm getting an antique plate for it in 2016. Hopefully Virginia will go back to its classic plain blue-on-white by then.

25 years and the car is an antique?  I want antique plates for mine, but alas in California it has to be a lot older than that.

[Pete from Boston]

I will, thanks. I'll need at least one by the end of May. Since one of them is a 1991, it'll only be on the car for 18 months or so. I'm getting an antique plate for it in 2016. Hopefully Virginia will go back to its classic plain blue-on-white by then.

25 years and the car is an antique?  I want antique plates for mine, but alas in California it has to be a lot older than that.

In Connecticut it's only 20 years to qualify as "Early American."  Kind of dilutes the meaning, but still it's funny to see 1990s cars with those little open roadsters on the plates (a design they have sadly just retired).

[Takumi]

25 years and the car is an antique?  I want antique plates for mine, but alas in California it has to be a lot older than that.

Yep. We get the choice of two antique plates, a white-on-black (which I want, since the car is black), or a blue-on-yellow. Vehicles prior to a certain year (sometime in the 1970s) when the plates were issued each year can have that year's plates as well, like WV.

[agentsteel53]

Yep. We get the choice of two antique plates, a white-on-black (which I want, since the car is black), or a blue-on-yellow. Vehicles prior to a certain year (sometime in the 1970s) when the plates were issued each year can have that year's plates as well, like WV.

no such option for me.  I'm thinking of getting California's "spay and neuter" vanity plates for my '86 CRX if I can find an available vanity.  I went all the way through the "charge my credit card and let me know when I can pick 'em up at the DMV" option for "HWY 395" before being told it was unavailable.  damn.

[agentsteel53]

In Connecticut it's only 20 years to qualify as "Early American."  Kind of dilutes the meaning, but still it's funny to see 1990s cars with those little open roadsters on the plates (a design they have sadly just retired).

heh, 20 years for me is "evaluate reliability, purchase at a low price, and run into ground".  not antique in the slightest.

(my household's newest car is a '97.)

[Duke87]

I would imagine that Southern California might have a greater prevalence of 20 year old cars than Connecticut does. Cars last longer when they are not subject to cold, snowy winters.

[nexus73]

Wyoming used to have four character plates.  I saw one on a Ford pickup that had "FORD" for the plate.  Having just four characters to work with makes Twitter look positively verbose...LOL!

Rick