Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 3, 1993 TAG: 9311030331
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Virginia's government wasn't amused. The Department of Motor Vehicles says the plates were issued by mistake, and Steckbeck's message is too offensive to be tooling up and down the state's highways.
The department recently sent Steckbeck a letter telling him the plates had been canceled.
And so Tuesday, Steckbeck, 34, filed suit in federal court in Alexandria in an effort to get the plates reinstated. Among other things, the Sterling resident contends that the motor vehicle agency violated his First Amendment right to free speech.
"What's at issue is to have the government mind its own business and stop directing people what to say just because people don't agree with it," said Steckbeck's attorney, Victor M. Glasberg. "It's no business of the state to regulate that."
Wrong, say motor vehicle officials, who, of course, are part of the government.
"We have received a complaint regarding the display of [your] plates," state officials told Steckbeck in a July letter. "It is not our policy to issue license plates that may be offensive to any person or group of persons. Therefore, license plates `GOVT SUX' are canceled as of this date."
In his lawsuit against Donald E. Williams, commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles, Steckbeck is seeking the reinstatement of his license plates and enough money to pay his attorney.
Steckbeck said Tuesday that he is angry about the cancellation of his plates. Since they were issued in the summer of 1992, Steckbeck said, they have been greeted by motorists with laughter, thumbs-up gestures and comments such as "Nice plates."
Although he would not comment on the lawsuit, a spokesman for the motor vehicle agency said Tuesday that the plates were issued because of "human error" and were canceled when the mistake was brought to the office's attention.
Since 1981, Virginia has had three criteria for rejecting proposed messages on what are known as CommuniPlates, spokesman Shawn Garrity said. The no-nos: references to a deity, references to the drug culture and obscenities.
If an agency screener questions a plate message, the matter goes before a review panel, Garrity said. He said it is rare for a plate to slip by and later be canceled, as happened in Steckbeck's case.
Steckbeck said he got the plates to "create discourse" about government, which he believes intrudes on people's lives. He said he never meant for the tags to be profane.
by CNB