Ohio man sues BMV for rejecting vanity plate — what does ‘F46 LGB’ mean?
[In the player above, watch previous coverage on personalized license plates rejected in Ohio in 2023 from FOX 8 sister station NBC4.]
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WJW) — A Southern Ohio man is suing the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, arguing its rejection of his personalized license plate infringes on his right to free speech.
The BMV rejected Jeffrey Wonser’s requested plate “F46 LGB,” “due to the potential perception of inappropriateness,” reads a complaint filed last week in Ohio’s Southern District federal court.
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“The string of characters ‘F46 LGB’ has no objective meaning,” reads the lawsuit. “Most people who see it attach no meaning to it whatsoever.”
But the complaint acknowledges the message could be interpreted as a homophobic slur or as a derogatory message against Joe Biden, the 46th U.S. president. As for “LGB,” the phrase “Let’s Go Brandon” has become an anti-Biden meme.
The complaint also alleges the BMV ruled the message had “two profane phrases,” however, it actually approved license plates reading “F46” and “LGB” individually.
The complaint argues that when such messages are open to interpretation, it “gives the government unbridled discretion to censor speech, as it abandons objective criteria,” reads the complaint.
Read the full complaint below:
Wonser appealed the decision and was allowed to reapply and offer evidence that “he had a different viewpoint in mind” for the personalized message. But he was rejected again for the same reason, without an option to appeal, and was ultimately refunded for the plate, according to the complaint.
He requested another chance for the plate months later, but “the BMV had programmed its computers to automatically reject his message,” reads the complaint.
After the state began offering vanity plates, the BMV never set any hard rules for rejecting plates and instead established a review panel which formed “its own criteria,” reads the lawsuit.
After the settlement of a 2001 lawsuit over a rejected plate reading “RDRAGE” (road rage), the BMV was made to refine its rules for vanity plates. It began rejecting plates as “inappropriate” if they contained profanity, were sexually explicit or advocated for lawlessness, among several other criteria, according to Wonser’s complaint.
But after that 2001 lawsuit was dismissed, the BMV “returned to a largely arbitrary censorship regime,” reads the complaint. Now, such messages are rejected even if they “can be interpreted” to be obscene or explicit, attorneys argue.
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The lawsuit also alleges the BMV’s review process has been more lenient to anti-Republican messages, choosing to approve “FDT” and “IH8GOP,” though it noted the messages don’t violate criteria put forth after the 2001 lawsuit.
“Under such a system, the BMV’s censors can simply search for obscure justifications to prohibit any messages they don’t like,” it reads. “And they often simply defer to the tastes of random bozos on the internet.”
The bureau rejected more than 700 personalized license plates in 2023.
In some instances, license plates were retroactively rejected — one was rejected nearly eight years after it was issued — because of public complaints, according to the lawsuit.
The complaint alleges violations of the First Amendment and seeks to have the court declare the BMV’s license plate screening guidelines to be unconstitutional and bar the BMV from enforcing them — and also to approve Wonser’s license plate.
The complaint names several state officials, including Ohio Registrar of Motor Vehicles Charles Norman, Ohio Department of Public Safety Director Andy Wilson and Thomas Stickrath, who was registrar when Wonser first applied for the plate.
Since the case is pending litigation, a Department of Public Safety spokesperson declined to comment on Thursday.
Wonser is represented by Cleveland attorney Brian Bardwell of Speech Law, whose firm is exclusively focused on First Amendment litigation, according to its website.
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