Vanity plates are a way to show your personality on the road, but one New Hampshire gentleman may be taking it too far.
David Montenegro went to the Department of Motor Vehicles seeking a vanity plate reading “COPSLIE.” In a report by the New York Daily News, Montenegro states he wanted the wording to protest “government corruption.”
As far as the state of New Hampshire goes, vanity plates that a reasonable person would find offensive “to good taste” are prohibited. The law is vague, which is how Montenegro was able to bring his case to light.
State workers at the DMV initially denied Montenegro’s phrasing for the vanity plate. The New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union however claimed the New Hampshire law’s phrasing about the matter is “unconstitutionally vague” – and it gives the state workers too much of an opinion in the matter, since it’s up to them to decide if it’s “offensive to good taste.”
The matter of good taste is where the issue lies. What actually determines good taste? What would a reasonable person say is good taste, or what is offensive?
In the end, the Supreme Court (in a unanimous decision) decided the COPSLIE vanity plate was not against the law. They said that “state law does not define the phrase ‘offensive to good taste.’”
The court also wrote in its decision that the New Hampshire law also violates free speech rights.