Wednesday, May 7, 2014

How Far Out Of His Driveway Does He Get Before They Pull Him Over?

I applaud the guy's courage of his convictions.
I also know I would be making sure all my lights worked and the inside of my car was spotless before I even got in it, every day.


'COPSLIE' vanity plate upheld by N.H. Supreme Court






CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — If a New Hampshire man thinks cops lie, he's free to say so on his license plate, the state's highest court ruled Wednesday.

In a unanimous decision, the state Supreme Court agreed with the arguments of David Montenegro, who wanted the vanity plate reading "COPSLIE" to protest what he calls government corruption.

State law prohibits vanity plates that "a reasonable person would find offensive to good taste." But the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union argued that the law is unconstitutionally vague and gives too much discretion to a person behind a Department of Motor Vehicles counter.

New Hampshire had argued that state workers were right to deny the plate, because the phrase disparages an entire class of people — police officers.

The justices said that state law does not define the phrase "offensive to good taste."

"The restriction grants DMV officials the power to deny a proposed vanity registration plate because it offends particular officials' subjective idea of what is 'good taste,'" the court wrote. The decision states the law is unconstitutionally vague and violates free speech rights.

The case was sent back to Strafford County Superior Court for further proceedings.

Attorney Anthony Galdieri, who argued the case on behalf of Montenegro and the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union, said he was not surprised by the ruling. "This regulation was an impermissible way to regulate speech under the First Amendment," Galdieri said.


Link courtesy of FARK.


2 comments:

Andolphus Grey said...

Live free or Die

Anonymous said...

In the interaction between you and the police, one is pressured to lie the other is legally bound to tell the truth...

Fair Use Notice

Fair Use Statement: This site may contain copyrighted material, the use of which may not have been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material available in an effort to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. I believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: “http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml” If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.