- California DMV revoked a vanity plate over connection to the terror group ISIS.
- Isis Wharton was shocked to learn the IAMISIS plate was being withdrawn.
- Wharton registered the plate in 2022 and vowed to contest the decision.
Vanity plates let drivers telegraph their personalities and opinions for a small cost each year, provided the DMV doesn’t think the wording is offensive. But three years after registering her own vanity plate, one Sacramento driver has learned it’s being cancelled, all because it contains her legal name.
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Related: She Kept Getting Tickets For Cars She’s Never Seen Let Alone Driven
The driver is Isis Wharton, who, since 2022, has been cruising around California with a metal plate strapped to her Kia’s tail stamped with ‘IAMISIS.’ Wharton feels hard done by, claiming the plate is simply a statement of fact, but it’s not hard to see where the DMV is coming from – if slightly harder to understand how it approved the plate in the first place if it thinks it’s so objectionable.
When Words Take On More Than One Meaning
A letter Wharton received from the California licensing agency explained that the plate “creates a risk of inciting violence” because it could be interpreted as saying “I am Islamic State of Iraq and Syria,” the LA Times reports. We’re not hearing as much about the terror organization that emerged from Al Qaeda as we used to in news reports, but the group’s name is still a touchy subject in the US.
However, Isis is also the name of an Egyptian goddess who symbolizes motherhood and healing, and it’s she that Wharton, who claims to be “hurt and offended” by the implication that her name would incite violence, is named after. As a result, she’s decided to appeal the DMV’s decision, something she has until September 27 to do.
DMV’s Balancing Act
In a statement to the newspaper, the agency said, “The DMV understands that language and symbols can hold different meanings across cultures and communities,” the agency said in a statement to the LA Times. “What may be a term of endearment in one context can be perceived differently in another.”
Under current rules, California’s DMV can refuse a plate for multiple reasons, including references to race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or sexual terms like on this dirty-sounding plate in Tennessee, whose owner is heading to the Supreme Court to keep. Violent and illegal references are also off-limits, as is any combination of numbers and letters that misrepresents an association with government or law enforcement.
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