Jason lives in Indiana, home of the “In God We Trust” license plates.
He applied for a personalized license plate reading NO GODS. Take a wild guess what happened…
Rejected.
Why? It was deemed inappropriate. According to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles:
Personalized license plates allow creativity; however, under Indiana Statue IC 9-18-15-4 (b) the BMV may refuse to issue a combination of letters or numerals, or both, that carry a connotation offensive to good taste and decency.
The BMV will deny a personalized license plate request if an objective, reasonable person would find that the customer’s proposed expression on the personalized license plate application is determined to carry a connotation offensive to good taste and decency, is misleading, or is otherwise prohibited.
Of course, some atheists could say “objective, reasonable” people wouldn’t believe in a god in the first place 🙂
But the dilemma is clear: Is simply saying NO GODS offensive? The BMV says yes. Jason says no.
He’s already contacted the ACLU in Indiana and FFRF. Sounds like he has a case, no?