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Last updated on Saturday, June 29, 2013
(UNDATED) - The Indiana Youth Group has its specialty license plate back.
The Bureau of Motor Vehicles reinstated the plate that was revoked last year after a complaint was filed by 20 Republicans state senators against the Indianapolis group that offers support to gay young people. BMV Commissioner Scott Waddell announced the reinstatement in a letter to ACLU of Indiana legal director Ken Falk. Falk had recently sued the BMV after Waddell rescinded a ruling from BMV administrative law judge Melissa Reynolds saying the Bureau was wrong to revoke the specialty plates in 2012. The lawsuit said Waddell violated IYG's right to due process.
The case was based on the low-numbered plate allocation program, where agencies who are granted specialty plates are allowed to give away specialty plates numbered 1 through 100 to staff or supporters. The BMV had revoked the plates from IYG, the Indiana 4-H Foundation and the Greenways Foundation, saying the groups violated state law by selling or auctioning those plates. Waddell's letter to Falk says that while the BMV will reinstate the IYG plate, the group will be barred from participating in the low-numbered plate program. IYG had claimed it gave the plates as gifts to those who had donated a certain amount of money to the group, similar to gifts given to donors to public television stations.
Waddell's letter states that Falk agreed to drop the federal lawsuit if the BMV agreed to forego further appeals of Reynolds's ruling.
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