Q: Dear Professor Honk: I saw a license plate today in Fountain Valley with a thinly veiled curse word and a politician’s name. Of course it’s popular to hate some politicians, but is it really appropriate to allow people to have an obvious reference to a curse word on their California, government-issued license plate? Is there a way to report this to the Department of Motor Vehicles as offensive?
– Paul Crocker, Ladera Ranch
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A: Paul sent over the photo, and the plate looks real, except it is missing the registration tags.
There’s no way it’s a real one from the DMV, though — the vulgar message is too apparent and directed at someone.
“The California DMV is required by law to review all requests for personalized license plates and ensure the configurations being approved are permissible under the California Vehicle Code and the California Code of Regulations,” Katarina Snow, a DMV spokesperson, told Honk in an email. “The majority of personalized license plate requests are approved.”
She forwarded nine no-no’s, including:
• The plate can’t have a sexual or scatological reference.
• No profanity or obscenity.
• No nod to ethnicity, religion or sexual identity.
• No configuration suggesting violence or breaking the law.
Those seeing a plate they find offensive can request that it be reconsidered and possibly yanked from the streets by writing: Department of Motor Vehicles, Policy Division; P.O. Box 825393; Sacramento, Ca. 94232-5393.
In fact, that appears to have happened over license plates issued in 2022: “IAMISIS.”
Isis Wharton of Orangevale, which is east of Sacramento, was recently told by the DMV she is getting new plates unless she successfully appeals. Some could take her plates to mean, “I am Islamic State of Iraq and Syria,” or ISIS, considered a terrorist group by the U.S.
She points out that she is Isis.
It has gone the other way, too. Jonathan Kotler, a USC media-law associate professor, wanted “COYW” on his plates; that translates to “Come On You Whites.”
Kotler only wanted to root for his Fulham soccer team in London. That phrase is a cheer for the club, which wears white jerseys.
The DMV said no, and the matter ended up in federal court — with Kotler getting his plates.