A United State district judge has awarded Ben "Bennie" Hart $150,000, paid out by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, to cover his legal fees after his request for an "IM GOD" license plate was denied, according to FOX 19.
Hart claims he had been using the "I'M GOD" license plate for more than a decade, but when he moved to Kenton County, Kentucky in 2016, he was told he couldn't use the plate anymore.
"I can prove I’m God. You can’t prove I’m not. Now, how can I prove I’m God? Well, there are six definitions for God in the American Heritage Dictionary, and number five is a very handsome man, and my wife says I’m a very handsome man, and nobody argues with my wife,” he told FOX 19.
Hart is an atheist who says the plate is his way of spreading a political and philosophical message that religion is open to interpretation.
Commonwealth transportation officials sent Hart a letter saying his plate was “vulgar" and "obscene.” It also said that the words “IM ALLAH,” “IM BUDDAH,” or “IM SATAN” would also be denied for the same reasons.
The courts ruled in favor of Hart, saying that the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet violated the First Amendment by attempting to stop him.
Vermont Bill Wants To Allow Emojis On License Plates: Report
A representative in Vermont wants to allow drivers to have emojis on their license plates.
This is not a joke. There’s a bill being introduced in the Vermont House of Representatives that would allow drivers to add emojis to their license plates.
Introduced by Democrat Rebecca White, the bill doesn’t specify which emojis will be allowed, as there’s nearly 3,000 to chose from, but it does state that the license plate would have to be a combination of numbers and emojis. A person couldn’t have just all emojis on their license plate.
The bill specifies that any emoji would be “in addition to the 10 distinctive number assigned by the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles or the numerals and letters selected by the registered owner of a vehicle as a vanity plate.” It also suggests that people could choose from 6 different emojis the state would eventually agree on, but it’s unknown what those would be.
Despite their trendsetting ways, Vermont wouldn’t be the first place in the world to allow the emojis on license plates however. Drivers in Queensland, Australia, can add any of five different emoji to their plates. Personalized Plates Queensland’s websites says “With five different emoji characters available, emoji plates allow you to add a little bit more of your personality with a mix of three letters and two numbers.” Those options are the laugh out loud, wink, sunglasses, heart eyes, and smile emoji.
