No surprise here, but in conjunction with the ICLU, an Indiana man has filed suit regarding the state's "In God We Trust" plates. From an Indy Star report:
The lawsuit filed in Marion Superior Court in Indianapolis claims motorists who request the "In God We Trust" plates receive preferential treatment because they do not have to pay a $15 administrative fee that the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles collects. The administrative fees are added to other fees whose proceeds promote the causes of the other specialty plates.
The plaintiff bringing the case, Mark Studler, said he pays an additional $40 for one of the popular environmental plates depicting an eagle above the word "Environment." Of the total fee, $25 goes to a state trust to purchase land set aside for conservation or recreational purposes and the remaining $15 is for the administration fee.
The 2006 law establishing the "In God We Trust" plate waives the
administrative fee.
I don't like the premise of license plates to begin with, let alone vanity plates. But I stringently object to the state, via the BMV, collecting money for any extraneous purpose. It doesn't matter to me whether the cause is the environment, one of the state universities, or Riley; or if the plate is just a motto or the image of a team like the Pacers or the Colts. The state shouldn't be a clearing house for a cause. It's bad enough that we have license plates at all. Must the state make a cottage industry of it?
It will be amusing listening to the so-called conservatives wailing about this suit as frivolous, mainly because it bothers them in the perception as an assault on God. Real conservatives would have opposed using the state as a tool for creating special interest imagery and the whole premise of special interest vanity plates. No, today's conservatism merely calls for "balance". The environmentalists have a license plate? Well, then we should have one with the word 'God' on it, too!
This is just as where conservatives used to oppose all welfare, they are now unified in providing balance, in the form of corporate welfare. &c.
1 comment:
I just look at it this way Mike...
"IF" all these ACLU idiots can't even STAND the sight of anything with "In God We Trust" on it, then they simply have to hand ALL THEIR MONEY (they can keep credit/debit cards and checks) over to those of us that can put it to much better use than frivolous lawsuits (and the associated lawyers)...
Can't get much more FAIR than that...can we?
;)
B.G.
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