Honolulu’s motor vehicles agency has been deemed justified by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in recalling a vanity license plate that was seen as a vulgar attack on the Black Lives Matter movement. The plate combined a three-letter “implied expletive” with the abbreviation BLM. Dealing with the argument that his right to free expression was violated, Edward Odquina claimed that agency officials had demanded the plate’s return, claiming an error had been made in its issuance. However, the appellate panel stated that the restriction focused on the content, specifically vulgar language, rather than the message’s viewpoint, thereby making it constitutionally valid.
The ruling was issued on Wednesday in San Francisco, affirming a federal judge’s refusal to grant Odquina’s request for a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order against the license plate recall. Odquina had initially requested the license plate in January 2021, and when a Honolulu city services employee inquired about its meaning, he asserted that it was an acronym for his business. Although the employee approved the plate at the time, they later acknowledged that this decision was incorrect, as swear words had always been prohibited according to the District Court ruling from the previous year.
When Odquina went to collect the license plate at Honolulu City Hall, another employee reported to their supervisor that the plate violated the policy against vulgarity. Concerned about potential aggression from Odquina, the higher-up instructed them to issue the plate but stated that a recall notice would be sent to him. Odquina refused to surrender the plate and, on August 13, 2021, registered a new business name called Film Consulting KravMAGA Bloomberg, two days after receiving a second written recall notice.
Court documents also identified Odquina as the operator of a website that shared the same name as the license plate. The current state of the site is blank, but in October 2022, it allegedly contained a lengthy statement criticizing criminals being portrayed as social justice heroes and advocating for the elimination of what it described as the anti-American delusional leftist libtard scourge across the nation.
Due to his defiance of the recall order, Odquina was unable to renew his vehicle registration. As a result, he filed a lawsuit against the city and the state’s acting attorney general in September 2022.
Overall, it was determined that the recall of the license plate was justified based on the use of vulgar language, highlighting the importance of maintaining appropriate content on vanity plates.
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