The Indiana Youth Group, a pro-gay organization that raised the ire of anti-gay legislators by getting a license plate sanctioned by the BMV has won a round in a legal battle over the plates. As a condition of having the plates issued, the group entered into a service contract with the BMV. Apparently digging for an excuse to terminate the plate, the BMV took issue with IYG’s practice of offering low numbered license plates as an incentive for increased donations. (The real problem some Indiana lawmakers had with the group was their advocacy for gay rights.)
In any case, an Administrative Law Judge found that the low plate incentive was a violation of the contract. However, the proper remedy under the contract was not termination but, rather, notice of the violation with a thirty day opportunity to cure the problem and comply with the contract. (Selling or auctioning the plate apparently did carry a consequence of immediate termination but the ALJ decided that the incentive was not a sale or auction.) I doubt that will be popular with the lawmakers who objected to the plate and the decision makers at the BMV. They almost certainly didn’t care a great deal about the low plate incentive so much as they wanted an excuse to kill the plate.
The BMV has until, I believe, June 15, 2013 to appeal the ruling.
My question is whether the state has set aside enough of my tax money to defend the laws passed by the legislature during the past two years, considering the wacko stuff that seems to have gone through, despite efforts to keep the worst of the bills locked in committee.
I’ve worked with and like a number of the deputies in the Attorney General’s office. I would never be so rude as to ask them directly, but I have to wonder if they cringe when they get assigned to defend some of this stuff.
As a former deputy, I can tell you that they do indeed cringe. Regularly. And that was 15 years ago when the wackos weren’t nearly as wacky.
The BMV Commissioner had stopped the process again and remanded the matter to the ALJ, purportedly seeking “clarification”.
I should have said “has stopped”, instead of “had stopped”, as this just happened yesterday.