Magnifisyncopathological

They might as well be, now.

Austin-American Statesman: Many license plate frames illegal

Texans who unintentionally cover even a small portion of their car's license plate can be stopped by police, ticketed and perhaps arrested for the offense, the state's highest criminal court ruled Wednesday.

The 8-1 decision left three Court of Criminal Appeals judges holding their noses - proclaiming the statute "uncommonly bad," but acknowledging that the letter of the law prohibits drivers from encasing their license plate in a frame that obscures the state name, state nickname or even portions of the artwork.

I wrote about this twice on this website: Millions of Texans are Lawbreakers Right Now! and Texas License Plate Conversation. Me, just an untrained opinionated blogger read the words of the law and came to the same conclusion the court did: Chapter 502, Section 409 of the Texas Transportation Code has language that effectively bans all license plate brackets and frames.

Here's the relevant text:

� 502.409. WRONG, FICTITIOUS, ALTERED, OR OBSCURED LICENSE PLATE

• (a) A person commits an offense if the person
  attaches to or displays on a motor vehicle a number plate or
  registration insignia that:
  
  • (7) has a coating, covering, or protective material that:
    
    • (A) distorts angular visibility or
      detectability; or
      
    • (B) alters or obscures the letters or numbers on the plate, the color of the plate, or another original design feature of the plate.

You can thank Senator Jon Lindsay's Senate Bill 439 for adding that (B) subsection to the law. He had House support in Representative Peggy Hamric's House Bill 1390, though it was SB 439 that was eventually passed and signed by Perry.

The language is clear. You are breaking the law if you have a license plate that has material that obscures any original design feature of the plate.

That means if your car dealership license plate bracket advertisement covers up one of those stars in the top background sky, the cops can pull you over and either fine you or use it as a pretext to harass you about something else. If your sports team license plate frame covers up "TEXAS" or the Space Shuttle either partially or totally, the police would be legally justified to slap you with a Class C misdemeanor carrying a maximum fine of $200. For example, my VW TDI has both front and back license plate frames I bought from Fred's TDI Club Forums that proudly announce the fact that I drive a diesel vehicle:

My frames completely obscure the "THE LONE STAR STATE" text at the bottom. As I said before, millions of Texans are lawbreakers and are now at the mercy of any law enforcement officer who has had a bad day, is looking to screw with someone, or is simply bored and wants to be Mr. Law for a while.

Back to the Statesman:

Unfortunately, the law as written unintentionally endangers civil liberties, Judge Cathy Cochran wrote in an opinion that, while siding with the majority, raises concerns about the ruling's impact.

"It is a 'gotcha' law because it allows the police to arbitrarily stop, ticket, arrest and search any person who is driving a car whose license plate frame covers up any portion of that plate's design," Cochran wrote in an opinion joined by Judges Tom Price and Cheryl Johnson. "Look around you - the vast majority of drivers on Texas roads and highways can be stopped and arrested at any given moment."

I hope conservatives who have let "activist judges" slip past their lips or keyboards take a good hard look at this. There are times when stupid laws ought to be struck down with prejudice.

Still, Cochran wrote, under a law revised in 2003, "it is a crime . . . if that frame obscures even the tiniest bit of the doo-dad design details of the standard-issue Texas license plate."

Violating the standard a Class C misdemeanor with a maximum fine of $200. But, Cochran noted, the offense can also result in arrest, a trip to jail and a search by police.

The case began with a November 2003 traffic stop by a Fredericksburg police officer. Craig Hill Johnson was pulled over because his dealer-installed license plate frame partially obscured the word "Texas," hid the words "Lone Star State" and obscured a depiction of a space shuttle in a nighttime sky.

Look out at the nearest parking lot and count the violations.

The ruling alarmed Jim Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project in Austin.

"It's terrible. Basically, the Court of Criminal Appeals is giving enormous power to the police to stop people on their will and whim," Harrington said. "Nobody is ever going to drive a car that is perfectly, perfectly in compliance with all the laws and regulations imposed by Legislature."

Copyright 2001-2007 Cox Texas Newspapers, L.P. All rights reserved.

Mr. Harrington, your beef with the court is justified, but you really should have some choice words aimed at the 78th Texas Legislature and Governor Perry as well. Those were the buffoons who created and enabled this law. They were the ones who told the police they had another arrow in their law enforcement quiver, a grand chunk of which deal with the regulations imposed upon us as a result of our private vehicles on "public roads" and impacting "public safety."