Legal battle over vulgar licence plate

LOS ANGELES (AP):

Football fan claims in a lawsuit that the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) violated his First Amendment rights by rejecting a personalised licence plate he said would celebrate his favourite team but which the DMV said might be deemed offensive.

The federal suit filed Tuesday says Jon Kotler applied for a plate that would read ‘COY-W’. That’s an abbreviation of ‘Come on, You Whites’, a slogan used by fans of London-based Fulham Football Club.

The suit says the DMV said it could be considered hostile, ­insulting, or racially degrading.

The DMV says it does not ­comment on pending lawsuits.

The complaint accuses the DMV of depriving Kotler of his right to freedom of speech. Kotler is asking the court to declare the DMV’s ­criteria for personalised licence plates unconstitutional.