Mark's Notebook


	And this is the simple truth - that to live is to feel oneself lost. He who accepts it has already begun to find himself, to be on firm ground. Instinctively, as do the shipwrecked, he will look around for something to which to cling, and that tragic, ruthless glance, absolutely sincere, because it is a question of his salvation, will cause him to bring order to the chaos of his life. These are the only genuine ideas; the ideas of the shipwrecked. All the rest is rhetoric, posturing, farce. - Soren Kierkegaard

Driver sues state for rejecting religious license plate

Rutland Herland

Wednesday 26 January 2005, 2:19 pm
Keywords: Christian Topics , News Articles

By Alan J. Keays

WHAT IT SAYS: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

A challenge to the state policy on restricting vanity license plates has reached biblical proportions.

Shawn Byrne of West Rutland filed a lawsuit Wednesday in federal court in Rutland after the state Department of Motor Vehicles rejected his request for a vanity license plate, "JOHN316," because of its religious reference.

The lawsuit against the DMV comes on the heels of another legal battle over a license plate waged by a Wallingford woman two years ago when she wanted her vanity plate to read "Irish."

The woman's request was initially rejected because the department considered the word ethnically offensive. She eventually took her case all the way to the Vermont Supreme Court, where she prevailed.

Now, Byrne, 43, is taking his case to court. The Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative organization that states it defends religious liberty, has taken up his case.

"This is a violation of his free expression rights," Joshua Carden, an ADF attorney, said Wednesday. "We'll be happy when Vermont's license plates are open to all citizens regardless of their religious beliefs, or lack thereof. That's what we're aiming for."

A month after applying for the plate Byrne received notice from the state DMV stating that all three requests had been turned down. "It has been deemed to be a combination that refers to deity and has been denied based on that reason," the letter read.

The law allows DMV to reject a word or phrase considered offensive or confusing to the general public.

The regulations state that license plates are not be allowed to have a combination of letters or numbers that refer to any language to race, religion, color, deity, ethnic heritage, gender, sexual orientation, disability status or political affiliation.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050120/NEWS/501200367/
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