CHICAGO — In a decision that is raising free speech questions while wading into the political sensitivities surrounding the Israel-Hamas war, Democratic Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias has revoked a handful of license plates that display some iteration of the date “October 7” after his office fielded complaints that one plate appeared to endorse last year’s attack on Jewish citizens.

Giannoulias’ office said it is using its authority to ban license plates it deems offensive after members of the public, including Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza, reached out last month regarding a picture shared on social media that showed a Chevy Tahoe with a specialized environmental Illinois license plate with the letters and number “OCT 7” framed by a plate holder reading “FREE PALESTINE” along with images of two Palestinian flags.

Giannoulias’ decision comes one year after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack in which members of Hamas invaded Israel and killed some 1,200 people and took about 250 others hostage. The assault sparked an ongoing Israeli campaign in Gaza that has killed more than 41,600 Palestinians and destroyed much of the territory. The conflict has proven to be polarizing across much of the globe. In the U.S., it has led to political divisions between progressive and moderate Democrats, a split that has been exacerbated by U.S. military aid to Israel.

Following the complaints about the license plate, Giannoulias’ office said in a statement, secretary of state officials reviewed the matter and examined other license plates that were on Illinois vehicles. The office then mailed letters to the owner of the “OCT 7” plate and four other Illinois vehicles that have variations of “October 7” on their license plates and notified them the secretary of state’s office was removing the plates from circulation.

Giannoulias’ office said state law allows the secretary of state to deny requests or revoke plates that “in the opinion of the Secretary, (1) would substantially interfere with plate identification for law enforcement purposes, (2) is misleading, or (3) creates a connotation that is offensive to good taste or decency.”

“As we know, the meaning and impact of words, monikers, acronyms and calendar dates can change over time,” Deputy Secretary of State Scott Burnham said in a statement. “The secretary of state’s office was notified about a variation of an ‘October 7′ license plate used in such a way that the plate could be considered hate speech or fighting words.”

When made aware by the Tribune of the social media post and the secretary of state’s response to it, the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois criticized the decision to remove the plates, saying it risks censoring political speech and calling the standard that the office used too vague.

“It raises a significant question about the infringement of someone’s political speech by a government official, simply because they don’t agree with the speech,” said Edwin Yohnka, a director of communications and public policy for the ACLU of Illinois. “It’s not clear what the standard is. Is it simply because somebody else complained? Is it simply because he doesn’t agree with it? Is it simply because somebody in the office doesn’t agree with it? It’s not clear what the standard is for that and yet it can result in someone having their speech stifled in that way. And how does that get applied across the board?”

The courts have weighed in on this issue, in one instance siding with a California man who won a federal lawsuit in 2020 against the head of the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles after the office denied the man’s application to get a vanity plate that included his Army nickname because the plate configuration “contained a gang reference,” court records show.

In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar wrote California’s prohibition on personalized license plate configurations “that may carry connotations offensive to good taste and decency” constitutes “viewpoint discrimination.” But Tigar also said his ruling does not prevent the DMV from banning certain words on certain license plates such as “(o)bscenity, vulgarity, profanity, hate speech and fighting words” that fall “outside the scope of the First Amendment’s protections.”

Unlike the use of profanity on license plates such as swear words, which Giannoulias’ office has banned, Yohnka said political speech “deserves a higher level of protection.”

“In this instance, sort of retroactively doing this because others complained raises serious constitutional questions,” he said of the “OCT 7” plate.

Burnham said some of the drivers who received the now-rescinded Illinois license plates got them within the last year and that the office would provide the owners with new license plates at no cost.

The secretary of state’s office routinely reviews specific requests for vanity or personalized license plates. Aside from expletives, the office flags combinations of letters and numbers that reference sex, drugs, violence and racial slurs. At the end of last year, the secretary of state’s office said it had a list of more than 7,670 license plate combinations that were deemed offensive or difficult to read.

In 2023, the office received more than 54,700 requests for vanity and personalized plates of which over 300 were denied because of their “inflammatory or offensive nature or because they were difficult to read,” the office said.

The Tribune learned about the license plate complaints through a text message exchange that happened last month between Giannoulias and Mendoza. The newspaper obtained a copy of the text messages through a public records request.

Mendoza, a fellow Democrat, texted Giannoulias a screenshot of the “OCT 7” plate from a Sept. 12 post on X.

“Not sure if this is real, but if it is, I think you should rescind this plate. Celebrating the terror attacks of Oct 7 in this way is despicable,” Mendoza texted. “Hoping this is AI, but if not, please do something about it.”

Giannoulias responded, “We are on it.”

In an interview Monday, Mendoza said she thought she saw the post on an X feed from the group “StopAntisemitism.” As of Tuesday morning, the group’s Sept. 12 post showing the license plate and frame had more than 225,000 views.

“I honestly thought it was probably a fake, like, AI image because in my mind I couldn’t reconcile the fact that someone would actually go through the trouble of ordering a license plate that clearly was meant and framed in such an offensive way,” Mendoza said. “Clearly many people I think would look at that license plate and in their mind they’re hearing hate speech.”

David Goldenberg, midwest regional director of Anti-Defamation League, also complained to Giannoulias’ office about the plate and praised the office for rescinding it.

“People get license plates for lots of different reasons … birthdays or their anniversaries,” Goldenberg said. “I’ve never seen a date like that, though, with a frame that clearly celebrates the murder of 1,200 innocent individuals, including Israelis and Americans. I’ve never seen a frame around a date that memorializes a day when a terrorist organization massacred 1,200 individuals because they assumed they’re all Jewish. Full stop. So, the intention of this particular individual appears to be quite clear versus celebrating an anniversary and a birthday.”

Hatem Abudayyeh, national chair of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, said the issue superseding the license plate prohibition in this instance is “really about this actual war on the Palestinian people,” though he shared some of the ACLU’s concerns.

“Free speech is not absolutely universal. I’m not one of those people who argues that. I recognize that profanity shouldn’t be on these plates. I recognize that racism and racist slogans and things like that shouldn’t be on these plates either, of course. And I would support rescinding for those reasons,” Abudayyeh said. “But I think rescinding for this reason, specifically, is truly a violation of somebody’s constitutional rights and free speech rights. And especially because Palestinians over the entire time we’ve been in this country fighting from the United States for our national liberation in our home country have gone under massive repression and massive censorship.”

State Rep. Abdelnasser Rashid, a Democrat from Bridgeview and the first Palestinian American to serve in the Illinois House, said he trusts the judgment of Giannoulias’ office to rescind plates. But he thinks this issue is more than just one problematic license plate.

“Celebrating attacks on civilians is never acceptable and we are seeing Israel continue to slaughter Palestinian civilians and Lebanese civilians,” Rashid said. “I certainly hope that we’re reflecting on the last year when we’ve all been mourning by recognizing that the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza continues today, that we should be doing everything in our power to hold the Israeli government accountable for its actions.”

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