Well, now that the American Civil Liberties Union has secured the right of South Dakotans with $25 to burn to put whatever they want on their vanity license plates, perhaps they can turn their attention toward reëstablishing the right of hundreds of thousands of South Dakota women who may not be able to afford a trip to Minnesota to terminate unwanted or health-imperiling pregnancies here in South Dakota.
The ACLU went to war against the state Department of Motor Vehicles this summer, declaring that its initial denial of a vanity plate that read “REZWEED” and other plate messages for “connotations offensive to good taste and decency.” The ACLU sued in November and last Friday secured capitulation from the state, which consented to a proposed court order that would declare that “good taste and decency” clause in SDCL 32-5-89.2 “severed from the statute and has no force and effect….”
Uh oh: that means that, if Judge Roberto Lange signs off on the consent decree, the statute would effectively read thus: “The secretary may refuse to issue any letter combination which carries connotations offensive to good taste and decency.”
If all we’re doing is severing the condition, the statute becomes blanket authority for the Secretary of Revenue to deny any proposed vanity plate. The ACLU chooses not to comment on that possibility:
It’s unclear from the language of the settlement if the takedown of the “good taste and decency” standard leaves any room for the denial of plates. ACLU spokesperson Janna Farley says the organization can’t comment on hypotheticals, such as the possibility of plates with profanity [John Hult, “‘Good Taste and Decency’ Standard for Vanity License Plates to Be Snuffed by Settlement,” South Dakota Searchlight, 2023.12.11].
Blanket refusal does not appear to be the intent of the ACLU’s proposed settlement. Clauses 5 and 6 of the proposal would require the state to let LYn Hart of Flandreau keep the “REZWEED” plate that started this fuss and issue to Hart the plates he wants reading “REZSMOK” and “REZBUD”. Clause 7 requires the state to grant Lynn Hart any vanity plate he requests in the future. (Wait: any plate? So, “SUKDIK”? “FUKNOEM”? “KILJEWS”?). Clause 10 requires the state to issue any previously denied license plate to anyone who reapplies.
But the statute as it would be rewritten by the ACLU’s proposal would read, “The secretary may refuse to issue any letter combination.” That plain language says the Secretary of Revenue and deny any plate, without giving a reason. If pressed for a reason, the Secretary may simply shrug, or say, “I don’t like it,” as long as he doesn’t invoke any notion of the good taste or decency that the ACLU has excised from the statute and forbidden the state from exercising (as if we need a court order to tell South Dakota state government not to exercise good taste or decency). The ACLU has apparently edited statutory language into a form that directly contradicts the intent of the special privilege it seeks for its plaintiff and other folks who’ve been denied faintly naughty license plates.
Boy, maybe it’s a good thing the ACLU didn’t try writing an abortion-rights initiative. Who knows what contradictory mess they might have produced.
The 2024 legislature should just repeal the provision that allows personalized plates, don’t issue any new ones and don’t renew any old ones. The statute gives too much discretion to petty bureaucrats.
Nick is correct. Get rid of vanity plates.
Charge $1000. Cry “Havoc!” Loose the tongues of crew-cab duallies!
Reminds me of when Pat Duffy lit a cigar on the courthouse steps after his client was only convicted of one felony by the madman Richard Battey.
Mr. Duffy is a swell fellow.
Normally, in the absence of explicit statutory standards an agency will use APA rule-making procedures to adopt reasonable objective criteria for discretionary decisions. I would think that this would be the next step for the DMV.
A KLSTRFK of dunces.
I’m torn between getting rid of the plates and adopting Newland’s $1000 fee. I’d like to make people pay more for their vanity… but I suppose I should stay consistent with my principles and and avoid advocating more state favors that would accrue solely to the rich. End vanity plates.
And for that matter, end the alternative plates that let people get indecipherable codes for no reason other than crankiness. You drive a car, and your license plate says what county you are from, dangit!
grudznick is with Mr. H. Plus, get rid of the goofy other plates like the Dignity and Tribal and Veteran and some other kind of Veteran and Purple Heart and Left-handed and Emblem and Historic and all that nonesense.
Plain white. Black letters. Sequential numbers. But put the old county codes on them too, even when we reduce from 66 to 33 counties. Keep the old numbers. Nobody likes change.