OFF THE WIRE
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DMV Offended by Vet's Vanity Plates
http://www.military.com/news/article/dmv-offended-by-vets-vanity-plates.html?ESRC=eb.nl
DMV Offended by Vet's Vanity Plates
Virginian-Pilot
They were seven letters on the license plates: ICUHAJI.
Phonetically, it could be read, "I see you, Haji."
To the Department of Motor Vehicles, the message was considered offensive to Arab Americans and grounds for the tags' revocation.
But to a former sergeant in the U.S. Army, the plates sent a message of support for the soldiers who served with him during two tours in Iraq.
Sean Bujno of Chesapeake, who was honorably discharged in 2009, is appealing last month's decision by the DMV to revoke his plates. In Circuit Court documents, he contends that DMV Commissioner Richard Holcomb violated his free-speech rights and his 14th Amendment right to due process.
"The government can't be charged with deciding what we can and cannot say," said Andrew D. Meyer, Bujno's attorney. "There are going to be people who don't like a certain message, but that is why there is the First Amendment."
He said the plates were on his client's car for more than four years before the DMV asked for them back.
He added that the plates were not meant to be offensive.
"Haji" is a common -- and often derogatory -- term used by U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan to refer to Arab people. But Meyer also noted its historic definition: "A person who has made a pilgrimage to Mecca," or the hajj.
Meyer, who declined to make Bujno available for an interview, said his client has expanded the meaning to include all U.S. soldiers who have served in Iraq.
"He's not intending it to mean Arabs," he said.
A DMV spokesperson declined to comment on Bujno's case, citing state privacy laws.
In general terms, Melanie Stokes explained, the DMV screens all requests for personalized tags to make sure they don't violate eight guidelines. One of the filters is whether the plate would disparage or offend people by ethnicity or race.
She said staff members run the personalized messages through a computer program that compares them with a list of objectionable messages, including objectionable passages spelled backward.
"If in any way questionable, the personalized message then goes before a diverse committee of DMV employees who determine whether the message should be declined or revoked," she wrote in an email.
The manager of the DMV's Special Plates Work Center makes the initial call. The DMV commissioner handles internal appeals.
Meyer said he is not arguing whether the state has the legal right to deny vanity tags.
Rather, he is claiming that DMV Commissioner Richard Holcomb abused his discretion in Bujno's case. Meyer says Holcomb took into account a bumper sticker on Bujno's car and a previous application that Bujno had submitted to the DMV for a personalized plate.
Meyer said the bumper sticker reads: "God bless our troops, especially our snipers." He declined to say what Bujno had previously requested for a personalized plate.
According to the DMV's website, the department "may consider bumper stickers, decals, magnets, pictures and/or any other material affixed to the vehicle which would influence how a person viewing the license plate would interpret the message."
Abed Ayoub, legal director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, praised the DMV.
He viewed the plate as an overt threat against Arab Americans -- especially in the context of the bumper sticker.
"What else could he mean? I mean, we aren't hiding," he said.
Ayoub went on to question how people would feel if the license plates referred to black people or Jewish people.
"What if it was ICUJEW? Would we tolerate that? Absolutely not," he said.
Meyer said his client has no desire to "inflame any racial division."
"The military is a brotherhood," he said. "The plate was a showing of support for those over there."
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DMV Offended by Vet's Vanity Plates
Virginian-Pilot
They were seven letters on the license plates: ICUHAJI.
Phonetically, it could be read, "I see you, Haji."
To the Department of Motor Vehicles, the message was considered offensive to Arab Americans and grounds for the tags' revocation.
But to a former sergeant in the U.S. Army, the plates sent a message of support for the soldiers who served with him during two tours in Iraq.
Sean Bujno of Chesapeake, who was honorably discharged in 2009, is appealing last month's decision by the DMV to revoke his plates. In Circuit Court documents, he contends that DMV Commissioner Richard Holcomb violated his free-speech rights and his 14th Amendment right to due process.
"The government can't be charged with deciding what we can and cannot say," said Andrew D. Meyer, Bujno's attorney. "There are going to be people who don't like a certain message, but that is why there is the First Amendment."
He said the plates were on his client's car for more than four years before the DMV asked for them back.
He added that the plates were not meant to be offensive.
"Haji" is a common -- and often derogatory -- term used by U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan to refer to Arab people. But Meyer also noted its historic definition: "A person who has made a pilgrimage to Mecca," or the hajj.
Meyer, who declined to make Bujno available for an interview, said his client has expanded the meaning to include all U.S. soldiers who have served in Iraq.
"He's not intending it to mean Arabs," he said.
A DMV spokesperson declined to comment on Bujno's case, citing state privacy laws.
In general terms, Melanie Stokes explained, the DMV screens all requests for personalized tags to make sure they don't violate eight guidelines. One of the filters is whether the plate would disparage or offend people by ethnicity or race.
She said staff members run the personalized messages through a computer program that compares them with a list of objectionable messages, including objectionable passages spelled backward.
"If in any way questionable, the personalized message then goes before a diverse committee of DMV employees who determine whether the message should be declined or revoked," she wrote in an email.
The manager of the DMV's Special Plates Work Center makes the initial call. The DMV commissioner handles internal appeals.
Meyer said he is not arguing whether the state has the legal right to deny vanity tags.
Rather, he is claiming that DMV Commissioner Richard Holcomb abused his discretion in Bujno's case. Meyer says Holcomb took into account a bumper sticker on Bujno's car and a previous application that Bujno had submitted to the DMV for a personalized plate.
Meyer said the bumper sticker reads: "God bless our troops, especially our snipers." He declined to say what Bujno had previously requested for a personalized plate.
According to the DMV's website, the department "may consider bumper stickers, decals, magnets, pictures and/or any other material affixed to the vehicle which would influence how a person viewing the license plate would interpret the message."
Abed Ayoub, legal director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, praised the DMV.
He viewed the plate as an overt threat against Arab Americans -- especially in the context of the bumper sticker.
"What else could he mean? I mean, we aren't hiding," he said.
Ayoub went on to question how people would feel if the license plates referred to black people or Jewish people.
"What if it was ICUJEW? Would we tolerate that? Absolutely not," he said.
Meyer said his client has no desire to "inflame any racial division."
"The military is a brotherhood," he said. "The plate was a showing of support for those over there."