A Marine veteran in Kentucky is outraged that the state has suspended his “INFDL” license plate, he’s decided to sue the state.
Shaun DeWalters, who served in the US Marine Corps and served in the Iraq War, was once able to show off his “Infidel” tattoo alongside his custom license plate, which was originally issued by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet in 2007.
As of October 31, however, the cabinet has declined to renew the tag, claiming it violated policy concerning “political belief as well as a religion or anti-religion.”
DeWaters has since lawyered up and taken the matter to court,
“Infidel,” attorneys wrote in the lawsuit, represents a “term of comradery used by Marines who served in the Middle East,” Robert Newman, one of DeWaters’ lawyers, told The Courier Journal.
Newman went on to state that American veterans like DeWaters adopted the nickname “as a badge of honor, turning the nickname back on their enemies.”
“The term infidel has a totally other meaning to me being a Disabled Marine Corps combat veteran,” DeWaters wrote in response to the state’s suspension of his plate. “It has been well documented in the media and literature that the insurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan called American troops infidels. We actually took it as a badge of honor that our enemy had given us a nickname.”
The suit is ongoing, highlights what DeWatters -and his attorneys- feel is an attack on the First Amendment.
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