What Can You Say on a License Plate?

Oklahoma state senators Marty Quinn and Nathan Dahm, both Republican stalwarts, have introduced a bill into the Oklahoma legislature allowing for specialty license plates that would read “Make America Great Again” and “Keep America Great.”

They argue that freedom of speech would make the license plates perfectly acceptable to anyone, Republican or Democrat, on any type of motor vehicle.

But others in the state legislature, and members of the Governor’s staff are not quite sure about the whole setup. There’s a question of federal campaign finance rules that might make it illegal to put President Trump’s branded slogans on license plates during an election year — especially since the President is running as the incumbent.

Oklahoma has already got 98 other specialty license plate mottos on record, from “Drill Coffee, Drink Oil” to “This Is Not a Test.” 

Senators Quinn and Dahm say they will postdate the bill to delay it going into effect until after the election, to soothe any ruffled Democratic feathers, but insist that there is no reason not to allow the slogans in question to be printed and sold by the state for extra income. Right now a specialty plate in Oklahoma will cost a motorist three-hundred dollars.