License plates, special; prohibits DMV from issuing certain plates to registered sex offenders. (HB1190)

This is similar to HB305, but more restrictive.

To limit ownership/use of a license plate on a vehicle owned by a citizen of Virginia who wants to support an organization based on a past conviction, is absurd.

So no Registered Sex Offender, their spouse, their parents or their driving-aged children can support the Family and Children's Trust Fund of Virginia?

Vanity Plates that Virginians pay extra money to own to support organizations, initiatives and Universities aren’t a government seal of approval it’s a personal expression, their Freedom of Speech. No one has to prove they went to or graduated from UVA, Tech or Old Dominion University to have that vanity license plate.

A Registered Sex Offender in Virginia must register every vehicle that they own both at their home and at their business, so this proposal doesn’t just affect them but it affects their spouses, their parents, their significant others and their children who are of driving age.

So what’s next no bumper stickers for RSO’s who kids are honor roll students or who play for the local soccer team? Because if they are advertising that they are actually parents……….. That’s dangerous to all kids?

What about those family decals with the number of parents, kids and pets in the family, are we going to make it illegal for RSO’s to have these on their vehicle?

Limiting vanity license plates for Registered Sex Offenders is a slippery-slope, what or who will it be next year?

When does a State mandate to register as a public Sex Offender move from an administrative act to a purely punitive one? That’s the line between Constitutional (administrative) and Unconstitutional (punitive) but it seems Virginia Legislators who race to propose harsher and more extreme restrictions year-in and year-out willfully ignore this requirement. When Legislative prohibitions, mandates, regulations and restrictions have absolutely nothing to do with pubic safety (like HB 305) that’s when we’ve crossed over into the Unconstitutional-Zone.

Restricting Vanity License Plates to former-offenders who have reentered society after paying their court-ordered debt is just another nail in the coffin for “those people” that “we” are allowed to suppress, isolate, control and segregate.

When did laws and government approved restrictions based on hate and prejudice become the acceptable norm in America? When public Sex Offender Registries were created 20 years ago and yet we’re still piling onto their limitations, barriers and prohibitions not based on facts or statistics but based on myth, fear and hate.

HB1190 AND 305 protects no one, but suppresses and controls those we are allowed to openly hate and never mind if it trickles down to their family-members too.

We oppose this legislation as well as HB 305 and SB 666.

These bills:

- punish 22,000 Virginia citizens and their families without reason by restricting their choice of special license plates
- punish nonprofit organizations by restricting 22,000 Virginia citizens and their families from purchasing special license plates that generate revenue for those organizations
- serve no public safety value and do not reduce child abuse
- contain no evidence that they will benefit society
- violate free speech of free citizens

This Bill was amended to be a Companion Bill for SB666.

It's Time for a Challenge http://goo.gl/7RPPcP

Both the Senate and House Committee discussions and floor (chamber) comments on the two versions of this Bill referenced Rob Buswell’s (Robby’s Rule 2015) abuser (a VSP RSO) owning a Kid’s First license plate and each patron openly suggested Mr. Buswell’s abuser was using it as a grooming tool to “troll” for additional victims. There has been NO evidence to support this claim but facts are inconsequential when it comes to harsher and broader Sex Offender Laws.

All 140 2016-Virginia Delegate’s and Senator’s have decided that I do NOT have the right to own a DMV-Offered License Plate to support a Children’s Charity on MY vehicle because of someone else’s conviction.

It doesn’t matter how long ago the conviction was, what the specific conviction was for or if it even involved a child/minor or not.

A Specialty Plate is NOT a government certification that the driver is an endorsed representative.

No other group of Virginians is prohibited from obtaining an offered Specialty Plate.

No other group of Virginians is prohibited from supporting a charity organization.

No other group of Virginians is subjected to an unspecified review by the VA-DMV for non-obscene letter/number combinations that may be directed towards a particular segment of our population which can be rejected.

No Virginia Legislator has ever proposed a ban against anyone convicted of Animal Abuse from owning a Virginia Animal Friendly Specialty Plate.

This court challenge isn’t just about VA-DMV Specialty License plates; it is against what will no doubt be a cascading set of laws stripping away more and more of our Constitutional Rights.

This challenge is about the continued targeting of a group of citizens who are mandated under threat of law to register publically by the State and submit to whatever restrictions and indignation conceivable and now the Virginia Legislators are sweeping up their spouses, parents and driving aged children.

Enough is Enough!