Drivers are not allowed to have these on their cars in New York due to a new law. The state has made the sale of license plate covers unlawful. Those found guilty of hiding a license plate to evade detection or toll collection face harsher penalties. On September 1, the new provisions of the law became operative. All of this is part of continuous attempts to combat “ghost” plates and “ghost” autos that use fictitious or modified plates to evade tolls. According to Governor Kathy Hochul, the purpose of these legal amendments is to ensure that all users of public infrastructure are paying their fair amount to do so.
From now on, it will not be possible to do this on your car license plate
The penalties for wrapping a license plate in plastic or glass or doing anything else that skews a photo of the plate captured by an electronic toll reader or traffic camera are increasing. If someone is found guilty of intentionally hiding their plate, they will be required to give up the cover. Now, repeat offenders who have three or more offenses in five years will have their vehicle registration suspended for 90 days. The new regulation also prohibits the sale of covers that are made to resemble legitimate license plates. Following the start of the crackdown on phantom plates in March, more than 450 people have been arrested. Over 2,100 vehicles and nearly 18,500 summonses for unpaid tolls have resulted in more than $19 million in seizures.
The ghost plates cause an estimated $50 million in lost highway and bridge toll revenue annually, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Moreover, the new license plate ban carries a $100–$500 fine for violators. If a repeat offender has three or more offenses in five years, their registration may be stopped for at least ninety days. The state is urging social media platforms, including Meta, TikTok, and Craigslist, to ban the sale of these covers. A law enforcement task force was formed in March to remove cars from the road that had altered or fake license plates. Since then, the task force has seized around 2,000 cars, arrested about 440 people, and issued almost 17,000 citations.
The Supreme Court could ban an explicit car license plate
The Tennessee Supreme Court decided on Wednesday that customized license plates, which have alphanumeric combinations that can be changed, are not protected by the First Amendment because they are regarded as government speech rather than private speech. Leah Gilliam, a resident of Nashville, asked for and was granted a license plate bearing the code 69PWNDU in 2010. This case provides the basis for the ruling. The plate alludes to the online gamer expression “pwned u,” which means to defeat an opponent.
After using the authorized plate for 11 years, Gilliam received a letter in May 2021 stating that her plate should be canceled since it mentioned sexual domination. She said that the digits were a reference to her phone number and had no sexual overtones. Gilliam filed a lawsuit against the Tennessee Attorney General and the Commissioner of the Department of Revenue in Davidson County Chancery Court the month after receiving her revocation notice, claiming that they had violated her right to free expression by removing her license plate.
The state clarified in court documents that the Department of Revenue has determined that several categories, such as racial or ethnic slurs, violence, sex, profanity, illegal substances, and disparaging slang phrases, are inappropriate for use on license plates. Additionally, unless the number relates to the model year of the vehicle, the department has a general policy of denying applications for license plates that contain the number “69” due to the number’s sexual connotation. However, according to court filings, lawyers argued that if your license plate includes offensive wording, including “SHTUNOT,” “BUTNKD,” “694FUN,” and “BIGSEXI” had escaped examination.
