War? What is it good for? Absolutely nothing, some might say, while others might put that opinion out in the open for anyone to see. But one man had to sue Michigan’s Secretary of State to express himself with “WAR SUX” on his license plate, after the state said the word implied hanky panky that’s unsuitable for children.
He and another man jointly sued the SOS in U.S District court, reports MLive.com. The other man’s request to have “INF1DL” on his plate was granted after the state admitted the rejection was an administrative error.
But the state really didn’t want WAR SUX on that plate, defending its decision to deny it by arguing that the word SUX has a sexual connotation inappropriate for children.
That didn’t fly with U.S. District Judge Gordon Quist, who said the SOS’ guidelines were too broad.
“Although the Department of State has adopted internal guidelines to augment the statute by providing some definite standards, the guidelines do no alleviate the potential for viewpoint discrimination.
“In fact, the guidelines, which preclude combinations that are irreverent toward ‘sacred things,’ including God, and that negatively portray a given racial, religious, ethnic or socioeconomic group, including persons of a particular gender or sexual orientation, explicitly sanction viewpoint discrimination.”
After the judge’s ruling, the two sides agreed to a settlement. The state won’t go after people under the “offensive to good taste and decency” category, and the man can have his WAR SUX plate.
The settlement also says the state “shall not prohibit the word, ‘sucks’ and its variations such as ‘SUX” and “SUKS” on the grounds that the word is sexual in nature, profane, vulgar or otherwise inappropriate when, in context, the word is being used as the slang term meaning ‘is objectionable or inadequate.’”
Michigan settles lawsuit over ‘WAR SUX,’ ‘INF1DL’ personalized license plates [MLive.com]
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
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