Maine begins its elimination of obscene vainness license plates

The state of Maine is beginning its technique of eradicating the vulgarities and obscenities from license plates. The Related Press studies that Maine started issuing recall letters to people with newly unapproved license plates this month. Reportedly, a handful of letters are going out every day, and Maine says the entire technique of letter sending will take a few months.

This newest step comes a couple of yr after Maine declared its intentions to rid itself of the profane license plates. The state received itself into this predicament again in 2015 when it basically eradicated the evaluation course of for vainness plates. Secretary of State Shanna Bellows is main the method of eradicating these plates from the highway. Bellows is a staunch supporter of freedom of speech and a former director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine, however even she says these plates are a step too far.

“What I might say to those that need to have interaction in objectionable or questionable speech: Get a bumper sticker,” Bellows mentioned.

At the moment, there are license plates with salty language together with F-bombs, references to anatomy and intercourse acts, and normal insults. One license plate says merely, “F—-Y0U” — besides that on the plate, it is plainly spelled out.

So sure, Maine has an issue right here, and it’s within the technique of fixing it. The brand new guidelines deliver it again into line with different states. They ban derogatory references to age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender id, nationwide origin, faith or incapacity. Additionally banned is language that incites violence, or is taken into account profane or obscene.

A committee has been set as much as evaluation vainness plate requests, together with complaints by members of the general public.

In Maine, there are about 124,000 vainness license plates on the roads in a state with about 1.3 million residents. Earlier estimates recommended 400 offensive plates might be topic to recall, and practically 40 recall letters had been issued as of midweek, officers mentioned.

Materials from AP is used on this report.