Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, August 28, 1993                   TAG: 9308280285
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

DMV DENIES RELIGIOUS TAG; MINISTER SUES

The Rev. Dan F. Pruitt Jr. of the Bristol Pentecostal Holiness Church filed suit Thursday in U.S. District Court in Richmond. He said a DMV policy that prohibits vanity plates "with any reference to drug culture, lewd and obscene words, deities, or combinations which might otherwise be offensive" is not constitutionally valid.

The DMV has twice denied Pruitt's applications for the GODZGUD plate, once by mail last year and once in person Tuesday at its Bristol branch office.

"I feel the denial of my request to display `GODZGUD' on a personalized plate violates my free speech rights, particularly when the commonwealth invites everyone to express themselves on their license plates," he said.

A Freedom of Information Act request filed by Pruitt's lawyers found the DMV had denied applications for plates reading GODINC, GODIO and GODIT.

In 1985, the DMV tried to revoke vanity plates it had issued to Arnold Via of Grottes that read ATH-EST. The agency said it wanted to withdraw the plates because of a complaint from an offended citizen.

Via kept his plates during a legal battle with the DMV until 1987, when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal. The DMV then declined to renew the plates.