Michigan Dept. of State Rejects “WAR SUX” Vanity Plate Request From Ann Arborite

OFFICIALS IN THE Michigan Department of State determined that “WAR SUX” is a vanity plate request that is “offensive to good taste and decency.”

David DeVarti, an Ann Arbor resident, former City Council member and former member of the Board of the Downtown Development Authority believes his First Amendment rights were violated by the state’s refusal to allow him to purchase the vanity plate.

In explaining the rejection, Michigan officials wrote, “selections cannot be offensive to good taste or decency.” On the Secretary of State’s website, officials say such determinations are “as judged by the Department of State.”

“SUX” is an alternative spelling of “SUCKS.” Originally, “sucks” was a mild insult that came from the idea of piercing a hole (or two at either end) of an uncooked egg, and then sucking or blowing the raw egg outside of the shell, without cracking the shell. Thus the empty eggshell could then be used in some craft activity.

Since no one liked the idea of having to eat an uncooked egg (Yukk!!), “Go suck an egg!” became a popular male slang insult, similar to “Go fly a kite!”

Then its use and meaning decayed and degenerated into the sexual ‘blow/suck’ usage termed “Dirty English.”

Today’s overuse is much more disparagingly insulting, to the point of a socially unacceptable vulgarism, yet very popular one among both sexes.

Slate.com posted a piece titled, “In Defense of the Word ‘Sucks.’” Author Seth Stevenson writes: Sucks is here to stay. And what’s more, it deserves its place in our lexicon, for a couple of reasons. First, it’s impossible to intelligently maintain that sucks is still offensive. The word is now completely divorced from any past reference it may have made to a certain sex act…. The point is that sucks has become untethered from its past and carries no tawdry implications for those who use it. 

But this debate is tired. We could argue all day about whether sucks is an obscenity or not. (I’ll just note that time is on my side. Frequent usage in all sorts of contexts means sucks grows less obscene by the minute.) What’s far more interesting to me is the word’s utility.

Sucks is the most concise, emphatic way we have to say something is no good. As a one-syllable intransitive verb, it offers superb economy.

The Michigan ACLU agrees and filed a lawsuit on behalf of DeVarti and another Michigan man. Daniel Korobkin, Dave DeVarti’s lawyer, argues that Michigan’s rule is “vague and subjective, and it has chilled a lot of very important speech that people have a right to express, whether it’s through the license-plate program or anywhere else.”

The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan and arguments in the case are expected to begin next month.

The ACLU’s suit against the state of Michigan includes another plaintiff, Michael Matwyuk. Matwyuk was denied a vanity plate that read INF1DL. Matwyuk, an Iraq War veteran, said that, “Enemy soldiers often called the American soldiers ‘infidels,’ and members of his unit adopted it as a term of endearment for each other.”

He received a similar rejection letter to DeVarti’s. Officials at the Michigan’s Department of State explained that they use “guidelines to determine what is considered offensive to good taste and decency.”

Those guidelines include: phrases or letters commonly perceived as indecent, profanity or obscene language, configurations of a sexual nature, words or phrases that portray negative images of racial, religious or socioeconomic groups, or configurations that are “unacceptable with respect to society’s collective values, such as COPKILR.’”

Nonetheless, the vanity plate HERETIC was approved in Michigan, which isn’t the only state to display inconsistent decision-making in determining what can and cannot go on plates. As many offensive plates were approved as rejected, a review found in Florida earlier this year.

According to reporting by Pete Bigelow, a former AnnArbor.com writer who moved to AOL.com Cars: “Last January, Georgia rejected vanity plates that read ‘GAYGUY,’ ‘GAYPWR’ and ‘4GAYLIB,’ but approved ‘JESUS4U’ and ‘BLKBUTI.’ James Cyrus Gilbert III, who had applied for the first three, has filed suit against the Georgia Department of Driver Services.”

In Michigan, Matwyuk first wrote a letter asking that the decision be reversed. In it, he wrote his use of the term was “an expression of my service as an Iraqi combat veteran and that I am, in fact, an Infidel.” He received another letter restating the denial.

However, after Matwyuk filed the lawsuit, the state reversed its decision and granted him his vanity plate in September. Despite the reversal, he remains a plaintiff in the ACLU’s lawsuit.

“That was great news for him, but it didn’t really take care of the larger problem that the state government still took the position it could still censor whatever plates they want,” Korobkin told AOL.

The “Daily Dish” was founded in the summer of 2000 by Andrew Sullivan as one of the very first political blogs. In 2006 he took the blog to Time.com and then to The Atlantic.com It has a readership of around 1.2 million unique visitors with an average of around 8 million page views a month from around the world. “Dish” writer Andrew Sullivan weighed in on the “SUX/ Sucks” debate in a November 13, 2013 post to his blog. In it, Sullivan quotes one of his readers:

I believe that the connotations are nothing more than homophobia and sexism in their plainest, ugliest forms. Now, maybe “sucks” is meant metaphorically in some other way. For example, “Broccoli sucks!” ould mean that broccoli metaphorically sucks all the enjoyment out of dining. Maybe. But my gut says, no, that’s not what is meant at all.

Something sucks. Something sucks because it is not powerful; it is not manly; it is less than.

I know I sound like an earnest “queer studies” student in my email above. I don’t mean to be. I don’t want to police language, and I don’t want the world to be a sterile place where the use of a particular word can destroy a person. But, as I try to become more understanding of how my privilege as a white-looking heterosexual male affects my life, I can’t help but consider the use of the word “sucks” as being ultimately destructive. And, so, I have stopped using it. I hope you’ll do the same.

Korobkin and the ACLU see the argument more prosaically: “Free speech is not limited to one particular viewpoint or side of the political spectrum,” Korobkin said. “We’re talking about very basic principles that all of us should be able to embrace.” Or not.