AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine is one step closer to implementing a ban on obscene and vulgar license plates.
"If I can't say it on the news, it shouldn't be something that Bureau of Motor Vehicles is issuing on a government-owned license plate," Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said during a public hearing Friday on a proposed law regarding a ban.
In 2021, the state Legislature passed a law banning vanity plates that have obscene or profane words or phrases. Bellows said that since then she and her staff, along with BMV officials and the Office of the Attorney General, have been working to determine how to implement it.
According to the proposed plan, license plates that meet the following criteria would no longer be allowed:
- Falsely suggest an association with a public institution or a government or a government agency.
- Duplicate another plate.
- Encourage violence or that may result in an act of violence or other unlawful activity because of the content of the language or configuration of letters and numbers.
- Are profane or obscene.
- Make a derogatory reference to age, race, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, ancestry or national origin, religion or physical or mental disability.
- Connote genitalia or relate to sexual acts.
- Contain language or a configuration of characters that include forms of slang terms, abbreviations, phonetic spellings, or mirror images of a word or term otherwise prohibited by this section, even if expressed in a language other than English.
Bellows said that when a request for a vanity plate is submitted and it raises questions with BMV staff, it would then go to a "vanity plate review committee" which would determine whether or not it's obscene or vulgar.
"We've received dozens upon dozens, even hundreds of complaints about them," Bellows said.
Bellows added that there's also a process to contest a decision to ban a license plate. Someone who currently has a plate that would be considered obscene or vulgar would be sent a notice that they need a new plate. They would have 14 days to appeal the state's decision.
Only one person spoke at Friday's hearing. Anahita Sotoohi, representing the ACLU of Maine, said the ruling would prohibit free speech.
"It censors speech based on viewpoint, and it gives bureau employees nearly unbridled discretion to decide what plates to ban," Sotoohi said. "The methodology in the proposed rule would effectively turn bureau employees into official definers of words. This outcome is both dystopian and unconstitutional."
Written public comments on the proposed plan can be submitted until June 6th. Bellows said she expects rules to be finalized and implemented later this summer.
"Mainers love our vanity plates, but at the same time we've heard from parents, grandparents, and from concerned citizens that they don't understand why the BMV is manufacturing and issuing government-owned property, license plates, that are some of the most obscene and profane in New England," Bellows said.
You can read the full proposed plan here.
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