Vanity plates offer car owners a unique way to express themselves by paying extra for a special message or a unique grouping of letters and numbers on their license plate. However, state governments and their departments of motor vehicles may reject the application if they find the language to be controversial.
Wendy Auger was shocked when she learned that her beloved vanity plate of fifteen years was being rejected by the DMV because it contained a word they deemed offensive. The plate, which read “PB4WEGO,” had brought smiles to many people on the roads of New Hampshire where she lives. As a bartender from the Gonic neighborhood in Rochester, New Hampshire, Auger was surprised that the DMV found the plate so offensive.
Auger is of the opinion that the state is infringing on her right to free speech, as guaranteed by the First Amendment. Moreover, she feels that the message, “pee before we go,” which she had displayed on her vanity plate, is hardly offensive because it is just common-sense advice that parents give to their children.
Auger stated, “Who has a mom or dad or parental figure who hasn’t said that to kids before leaving the house? I’m not the type to sit here with a picket, but come on.”
The New Hampshire community rallied behind Auger, citing the state motto “Live Free Or Die” as evidence that the DMV should not censor an innocuous vanity plate like hers.
Auger not only finds her vanity plate to be a piece of good advice but she also thinks that her car “would just stink” of pee if she had to remove it.
She added jokingly, “If I have to take it off the plate, then I’m not going to be able to live free.”
Auger didn’t get the plate on a whim. She had been searching for it for years and was patiently waiting for it to become available. She seized the opportunity to put “PB4WEGO” on her New Hampshire plate when the state expanded the number of characters allowed in its vanity license plates from six to seven.
According to the state, they “were forced to be changed years ago by the NH Supreme Court as a result of a court order, and now the rules are very specific.”
The state has not commented on whether the Auger case is covered under its privacy laws.
The mom, on the other hand, considers the topic of peeing as a non-offensive matter. Since it is a natural bodily function that everyone has to deal with, she finds it to be a playful way to express herself through her vanity license plate.
Should Auger be required to give up her 15-year-old license plate?
