Supreme Court Sides With BMV In Indiana Cop's "0INK" Plate Lawsuit

By Mike Perleberg The Indiana Supreme Court has ruled that potentially offensive plates, like this one at the center of a 2013 lawsuit, can be denied by the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Image provided by ACLU of Indiana. (Indianapolis, Ind.) – Not everything goes when it comes to Indiana motorists choosing what appears on their specialty license plate. That’s what the Indiana Supreme Court ruled on Friday in handing down a ruling on a license plate that read “0INK”. A police officer from Greenfield, Indiana had sued the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles in 2013 after the license plate, meant to be a tongue-in-cheek reference to his job, was revoked. Police officers are sometimes referred to disrespectfully as “pigs”. Police officer Rodney Vawter had been approved for the plate three years earlier, but it was revoked when the BMV revoked it because the plate was too similar to another plate reading “O1NK” that had been declined. In its ruling, the state’s highest court said the BMV does not violate drivers' free speech and due process rights under the U.S. Constitution by denying applications for plates or revoking previously issued plates. "We're obviously disappointed," Kenneth Falk, legal director of the ACLU of Indiana, said in an interview. "We thought that unique license plates that individuals construct for themselves were private speech, not government speech, especially if it were obvious that the speech was not that of the state." In arguing against the BMV, the ACLU claimed that other plates such as “BIGGSXY”, “UNHOLY” and “BLKJEW” had been allowed by the agency. Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller said in a statement that the court had struck a careful balance allowing the state to reject offensive plates while affording drivers other means to express themselves on their vehicles.