License plates, special; prohibits DMV from issuing certain plates to registered sex offenders. (HB305)

Introduced By

Del. Marcus Simon (D-Falls Church) with support from 11 copatrons, whose average partisan position is:

Those copatrons are Del. Jeff Campbell (R-Marion), Del. Betsy Carr (D-Richmond), Del. Todd Gilbert (R-Woodstock), Del. Randy Minchew (R-Leesburg), Del. Kathleen Murphy (D-McLean), Del. Chris Peace (R-Mechanicsville), Del. Roxann Robinson (R-Chesterfield), Del. Mark Sickles (D-Alexandria), Del. Scott Taylor (R-Virginia Beach), Del. Tony Wilt (R-Harrisonburg), Sen. Lamont Bagby (D-Richmond)

Progress

Introduced
Passed Committee
Passed House
Passed Senate
Signed by Governor
Became Law

Description

Issuance of certain special license plates. Prohibits the DMV from issuing to registered sex offenders special license plates for supporters of the Family and Children's Trust Fund of Virginia bearing the legend KIDS FIRST or renewing the registration for a vehicle that has been issued such license plates. Read the Bill »

Outcome

Bill Has Failed

History

DateAction
01/04/2016Committee
01/04/2016Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/13/16 16100256D
01/04/2016Referred to Committee on Transportation
01/19/2016Impact statement from DPB (HB305)
01/21/2016Assigned to sub: Subcommittee #2
01/21/2016Assigned Tansportation sub: Subcommittee #2
01/21/2016Assigned Transportation sub: Subcommittee #2
02/08/2016Subcommittee recommends laying on the table
02/16/2016Left in Transportation

Comments

Mary Devoy writes:

To limit 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.

Virginia’s Kid’s First Vanity Plate is from the Family and Children's Trust Fund of Virginia to support Safe Kids Virginia is led by VCU Medical Center.

So per the patron (and Rob Buswell) no Registered Sex offender can support this organization?

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 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.

HB305 protects no one, but suppresses and controls “them”, nice job!

ACLU-VA Free Speech, tracking this bill in Photosynthesis, notes:

The ACLU of Virginia is monitoring this bill.

Safer Virginia writes:

We oppose this legislation as well as SB 666 and HB 1190.

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

Mary D. Devoy writes:

This Bill was rolled into HB1190-Greason