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Man Sues The DMV Over “Come on You Whites” Vanity Plate

Jonathan Kotler is a huge soccer fan. He is such a fan that he’s traveled numerous times from Los Angeles to London, just to support his team, Fulham F.C., in person. He also wanted to have a vanity license plate in their honor.
California vanity license plate 19 photos
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His request was turned down by the Department of Motor Vehicles California, on the grounds that it was “offensive to good taste and decency.” Any other person would have settled for it and moved on, but Kotleris is also a lawyer and a constitutional scholar at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. So he’s suing the DMV for impeding his right to free speech.

The vanity plate Kotler had settled for was “COYW,” short for “Come on You Whites,” which is the motto of Fulham F.C., whose players wear white jerseys. If you thought “Come on You Whites” had some kind of sexual undertones, you thought too far: the DMV banned it for being racially offensive towards white people.

In a statement to LA Mag, the DMV says that it doesn’t comment on pending litigation, but they did tell Kotler that it was “difficult to balance an individual’s constitutional right to free speech and expression while protecting the sensibilities of all segments of our population.” Kotler is arguing that this the criteria used to protect these sensibilities are subjective and, as such, unconstitutional.

If Kotler wins this, it could mean an end to the current mode of reviewing vanity plates, which is based on a booklet that serves as guideline. The DMV California employs 4 people full-time to review all vanity plate submissions.

There is a precedent that could tip the scales in the Department’s favor: a 1973 California Court of Appeals case which upheld a similar decision from the DMV, over the license plate suggestion “EZ LAY.”

However, Kotler, who is repped by the Pacific Legal Foundation, is convinced he has a winner on his hands, particularly because there were no sexual connotations to his proposal. And a racist he is not. “You can call Jon a sports fan or a First Amendment expert, but the DMV’s misguided efforts to regulate license plates have misbranded Jon as a racist,” an attorney for the PLF tells the same publication.
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About the author: Elena Gorgan
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Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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