American bureaucrats have refused a Fulham football club fan’s application for a personalised “Come on You Whites” number plate on the grounds that it could be deemed racist.
Long distance season ticket holder Jonathan Kotler, an academic at the University of Southern California, applied for the “COY-W” number plate after Fulham were promoted from the Championship and before their relegation from the Premiership was confirmed earlier this month.
He was astonished when the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) rejected his application on the grounds that because the letters COY-W stood for “Come on You Whites”, the proposed number plate “can have racial connotations”.
Mr Kotler, 73, an associate professor specialising in constitutional rights and media law, is now suing the DMV saying the refusal breaches his freedom of speech rights under the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
Because his lawsuit also calls for a blanket ban on the DMW being allowed to refuse plates on “taste and decency” grounds, it could potentially overturn how things have worked in California since 1973, when the department won a court ruling to stop a male driver getting the number plate EZ LAY.
1/46 45 films you never knew realised were banned
Click through the gallery
2/46 All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
The ban on All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) was ordered in Germany by Adolf Hitler himself who disliked its anti-war message. This came after an initial run during which members of the Nazi Party disrupted screenings by releasing mice into the cinema and, at one stage, attacking Jewish audience members. Censors in Austria, Australia, Italy and France also banned the film in the early 1930s.
Universal Pictures
3/46 American Sniper (2015)
Many might find Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper (2015) to be something of an insult, but Iran banned the war drama – based on the life of the US military’s deadliest marksman – for being just that. Censors deemed it “offensive” to its nation.
Warner Bros Pictures
4/46 Apocalypse Now (1979)
The anti-war sentiment present in Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now saw the film banned under President Park Chung-hee’s regime in 1979.
United Artists
5/46 Argo (2012)
Ben Affleck’s Best Picture-winning 2012 drama Argo was banned in Iran due to its negative portrayal of the country.
Warner Bros Pictures
6/46 Battleship Potemkin (1925)
Finnish censors believed that Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 Soviet silent film Battleship Potemkin would incite a Communist revolution, so gave the film an outright ban.
Goskino
7/46 Beauty and the Beast (2017)
Disney’s live-action remake of its 1991 classic was banned in Kuwait due to homosexual references involving the character LeFou (Josh Gad). It evaded a ban in Russia after being slapped with a 16+ age certificate and in Malaysia after having the references cut altogether.
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
8/46 Ben-Hur (1959)
China banned William Wyler’s religious epic Ben-Hur in 1959 under the regime of Mao Zedong for containing “propaganda of superstitious beliefs, namely Christianity”. While most films go on to have their ban lifted, the country has never given the Oscar-winner permission to be shown.
Loew’s, Inc
9/46 Borat (2006)
It turns out there are some people who don’t find Sacha Baron Cohen that funny, notably officials in all Arab countries (except Lebanon) who banned his 2006 comedy Borat for being “too offensive”.
20th Century Fox
10/46 Brief Encounter (1945)
Officials in the Catholic country of Ireland found David Lean’s romantic drama Brief Encounter to be too accepting of adultery to be shown in cinemas.
Eagle-Lion Distributors
11/46 Brokeback Mountain (2005)
The homosexual relationship at the centre of Ang Lee’s 2005 drama Brokeback Mountain saw the film banned in all Arab countries bar Lebanon, where it was released in a censored format.
Focus Features
12/46 Child 44 (2015)
The number of banned films in North Korea runs pretty high, but an unexpected feature on the list is the Tom Hardy-starring Child 44 (2015). Countries including Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Belarus all followed suit.
Summit Entertainment Lionsgate
13/46 Christopher Robin (2018)
Censors in China denied the release of Disney’s Christopher Robin in 2008 because the character of Winnie the Pooh has become a symbol of resistance against the country’s ruling Communist Party and its leader Xi Jinping.
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
14/46 A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Stanley Kubrick met a lot of opposition with A Clockwork Orange in 1971. While the film was never banned outright in the UK (it was withdrawn at the director’s request after his family received death threats because of it), it wasn’t shown in cinemas in Ireland, Singapore, South Africa and South Korea due to its depictions of violence and gang rape. It wasn’t screened in the UK until after Kubrick’s death in 1999.
Warner Bros
15/46 The Da Vinci Code (2006)
The high-profile adaptation of Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code was banned in (take a deep breath) China, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Philippines, Samoa and Solomon Islands due to content deemed blasphemous.
Columbia Pictures
16/46 The Danish Girl (2015)
The Danish Girl, Tom Hooper’s film inspired by the life of transgender painter Lili Elbe, was banned in Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Malaysia on grounds of “moral depravity” in 2015.
Universal Pictures
17/46 Deadpool (2016)
After it was decided that Deadpool couldn’t be edited without affecting its plot, Chinese officials initially banned the film citing explicit content. Uzbekistan followed suit as the film “violated the country’s societal norms”, while it received heavy editing in order to be shown in India.
20th Century Fox
18/46 The Death of Stalin (2017)
Armando Iannucci’s 2017 comedy The Death of Stalin failed to make the cut in Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan because of its perceived anti-Soviet theme.
eOne Films
19/46 The Departed (2006)
Martin Scorsese’s crime thriller The Departed hit a nerve with China in 2006 thanks to a line of dialogue that suggested its government intends to use nuclear weapons on Taiwan, a sensitive issue for the country. The ban has never been lifted.
Warner Bros
20/46 District 9 (2009)
District 9, Neill Blomkamp’s science-fiction film from 2009, was slapped with a ban in Nigeria due to accusations of being xenophobic and racist towards its citizens.
TriStar Pictures
21/46 Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)
The adaptation of EL James’s erotic drama Fifty Shades of Grey may not have been as raunchy as some were hoping, but it was considered too explicit for audiences in Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates and Zimbabwe.
Universal Pictures
22/46 Funny Girl (1968)
William Wyler’s romantic musical Funny Girl was banned in Egypt because its male lead Omar Sharif – an Egyptian Muslim – is shown in a romantic storyline with the Jewish Barbra Streisand, who was vocal in her political support for Israel at the height of military tensions with Egypt in 1968.
Columbia Pictures
23/46 Ghostbusters (2016)
Paul Feig’s all-female reboot of Ghostbusters was denied a release in China due to censorship laws prohibiting the promotion of cults and superstitions. Not even changing the title to Super Power Dare-to-Die Team (yes, really) could help its cause.
Columbia Pictures
24/46 Goldfinger (1964)
Sean Connery’s third film as British spy James Bond, Goldfinger (1964), had been released in Israel for six weeks when it was revealed that one of its main actors, Gert Fröbe, had a Nazi past. It had the ban lifted when a Jewish survivor came forward with the revelation that his life and his mother’s were probably saved after being hidden from the Nazis by Fröbe.
United Artists
25/46 The Hunger Games (2012)
The country of Vietnam deemed the numerous murders shown in blockbuster The Hunger Games too violent for teenage audiences and decided to slap the film with an outright ban.
Lionsgate Films
26/46 Jules and Jim (1962)
François Truffaut’s beloved French drama Jules and Jim found itself at the centre of a ban in Italy for its “attitudes toward sex”. The ban was quickly lifted.
Gala
27/46 Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)
Not many people enjoyed 2017 sequel Kingsman: The Golden Circle, but the cinema censors in Cambodia sit top of that list. Thanks to the moment that sees the film’s antagonist working from a lair in a Cambodian temple, the Colin Firth action film was handed an indefinite ban.
20th Century Fox
28/46 Mad Max (1979)
It was a particularly gory death scene that saw Australian thriller Mad Max (1979) banned from being seen in New Zealand as it unintentionally mirrored an incident with a real gang shortly before it was released. The same scene saw the film banned in Sweden until 2005.
Roadshow Film Distributors
29/46 Milk (2008)
Milk, Gus Van Sant’s 2008 Oscar-winning biopic about gay rights activist and US politician Harvey Milk, was initially banned in Samoa with no reason given, though it was eventually revealed the film had been deemed “inappropriate and contradictory to Christian beliefs and Samoan culture” for its depiction of homosexuality.
Focus Features
30/46 Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979)
The religious satire featured in Monty Python’s Life of Brian was considered blasphemous in countries including Ireland, South Africa and Norway. Director Terry Jones used the controversy to the film’s advantage, putting up posters in Sweden with the tagline: “So funny, it was banned in Norway!”
Cinema International Corporation
31/46 Modern Times (1936)
Charlie Chaplin’s classic 1936 film Modern Times was banned in Nazi Germany for advocating Communism.
United Artists
32/46 Noah (2014)
Darren Aronofsky’s biblical drama Noah (2014) found itself the subject of a ban in China, as well as several Muslim countries, because it was perceived to contradict the teachings of Islam.
Paramount Pictures
33/46 Pulp Fiction (1994)
Malaysia disregarded Pulp Fiction for release and banned the Quentin Tarantino film scenes featuring drug abuse, explicit nudity and sexual violence.
Miramax Films
34/46 Rambo (2008)
Sylvester Stallone’s return as Rambo in 2008 – which he also directed – was deemed offensive by censors in of Burma who opposed the way the film depicted its country’s soldiers.
Lionsgate
35/46 Sausage Party (2016)
Officials in China were so worried that adults would assume animated film Sausage Party (2016) to be a children’s film that they slapped it with an outright ban. On the flip side, France gave the film a 12-rating.
Sony Pictures Releasing
36/46 Sex and the City 2 (2010)
It’s a wonder the first film of HBO series Sex and the City wasn’t banned in Vietnam considering the critically-maligned sequel – released in 2010 – was prohibited there due to a “conflict of cultural values”.
Warner Bros Pictures
37/46 Shrek 2 (2004)
Although brief, the ban on 2004 sequel Shrek 2 was incurred in Israel due to the Hebrew dub added to the film ahead of release. A particular joke aimed at Israeli singer David D’Or’s high voice prompted the musician to take legal action, halting the film from being released until its removal.
DreamWorks Pictures
38/46 The Simpsons Movie (2007)
The Simpsons Movie was banned in Burma due to the “juxtaposition of the colours yellow and red”, which is considered to convey support for rebel groups in the country.
20th Century Fox
39/46 South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
Trey Parker and Matt Stone ruffled plenty of feathers with their big-screen South Park film, Bigger, Longer & Uncut, and the comedic depiction of Saddam Hussein saw it banned in Iraq. The duo’s 2004 film Team America: World Police would later be banned by North Korea for its comedic depiction of Kim Jong-Il.
Warner Bros
40/46 300 (2006)
Iran didn’t take too kindly to Zack Snyder’s depiction of the Persian military in his 2006 film 300.
Warner Bros Pictures
41/46 2012 (2009)
North Korea suppressed 2012 from release in 2009 because the film depicted what the government considered to be an important year for the nation in a negative light (it coincided with its first leader Kim Il-Sung’s 100th birthday). According to reports, several people were arrested for viewing imported copies of the disaster film and were charged with “grave provocation against the development of the state”.
Columbia Pictures
42/46 The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Despite permitting other Martin Scorsese films to make the cut, countries including Malaysia, Nepal, Zimbabwe and Kenya banned The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) for its profanities and depiction of sex and intense drug use.
Paramount Pictures
43/46 Wonder Woman (2017)
Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot’s past in the Israeli army sparked a campaign to boycott the DC film in Lebanon due to conflict with both countries. The 2017 film was later banned there as well as Qatar and Tunisia.
Warner Bros Pictures
44/46 Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008)
Censors in Trinidad banned Kevin Smith’s 2008 comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno out of fear that teenagers would mimic the plot and make their own porn movies.
The Weinstein Company
45/46 Zoolander (2001)
Ben Stiller’s 2001 comedy Zoolander was deemed “unsuitable” for release in Malaysia due to its negative depiction of the country. Shockingly, Iran also banned the film over its perceived support of gay rights.
Paramount Pictures
46/46 Any film featuring Claire Danes
Claire Danes’ honesty regarding her time working in Manila came with a price. After telling Premiere Magazine the country “smelled like cockroaches”, the council passed a motion to ban the Homeland star from the city and prevent her films from being shown. Although Danes issued an apology, Manila said they will lift the ban when they are “satisfied”.
20th Century Fox
1/46 45 films you never knew realised were banned
Click through the gallery
2/46 All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
The ban on All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) was ordered in Germany by Adolf Hitler himself who disliked its anti-war message. This came after an initial run during which members of the Nazi Party disrupted screenings by releasing mice into the cinema and, at one stage, attacking Jewish audience members. Censors in Austria, Australia, Italy and France also banned the film in the early 1930s.
Universal Pictures
3/46 American Sniper (2015)
Many might find Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper (2015) to be something of an insult, but Iran banned the war drama – based on the life of the US military’s deadliest marksman – for being just that. Censors deemed it “offensive” to its nation.
Warner Bros Pictures
4/46 Apocalypse Now (1979)
The anti-war sentiment present in Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now saw the film banned under President Park Chung-hee’s regime in 1979.
United Artists
5/46 Argo (2012)
Ben Affleck’s Best Picture-winning 2012 drama Argo was banned in Iran due to its negative portrayal of the country.
Warner Bros Pictures
6/46 Battleship Potemkin (1925)
Finnish censors believed that Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 Soviet silent film Battleship Potemkin would incite a Communist revolution, so gave the film an outright ban.
Goskino
7/46 Beauty and the Beast (2017)
Disney’s live-action remake of its 1991 classic was banned in Kuwait due to homosexual references involving the character LeFou (Josh Gad). It evaded a ban in Russia after being slapped with a 16+ age certificate and in Malaysia after having the references cut altogether.
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
8/46 Ben-Hur (1959)
China banned William Wyler’s religious epic Ben-Hur in 1959 under the regime of Mao Zedong for containing “propaganda of superstitious beliefs, namely Christianity”. While most films go on to have their ban lifted, the country has never given the Oscar-winner permission to be shown.
Loew’s, Inc
9/46 Borat (2006)
It turns out there are some people who don’t find Sacha Baron Cohen that funny, notably officials in all Arab countries (except Lebanon) who banned his 2006 comedy Borat for being “too offensive”.
20th Century Fox
10/46 Brief Encounter (1945)
Officials in the Catholic country of Ireland found David Lean’s romantic drama Brief Encounter to be too accepting of adultery to be shown in cinemas.
Eagle-Lion Distributors
11/46 Brokeback Mountain (2005)
The homosexual relationship at the centre of Ang Lee’s 2005 drama Brokeback Mountain saw the film banned in all Arab countries bar Lebanon, where it was released in a censored format.
Focus Features
12/46 Child 44 (2015)
The number of banned films in North Korea runs pretty high, but an unexpected feature on the list is the Tom Hardy-starring Child 44 (2015). Countries including Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Belarus all followed suit.
Summit Entertainment Lionsgate
13/46 Christopher Robin (2018)
Censors in China denied the release of Disney’s Christopher Robin in 2008 because the character of Winnie the Pooh has become a symbol of resistance against the country’s ruling Communist Party and its leader Xi Jinping.
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
14/46 A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Stanley Kubrick met a lot of opposition with A Clockwork Orange in 1971. While the film was never banned outright in the UK (it was withdrawn at the director’s request after his family received death threats because of it), it wasn’t shown in cinemas in Ireland, Singapore, South Africa and South Korea due to its depictions of violence and gang rape. It wasn’t screened in the UK until after Kubrick’s death in 1999.
Warner Bros
15/46 The Da Vinci Code (2006)
The high-profile adaptation of Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code was banned in (take a deep breath) China, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Philippines, Samoa and Solomon Islands due to content deemed blasphemous.
Columbia Pictures
16/46 The Danish Girl (2015)
The Danish Girl, Tom Hooper’s film inspired by the life of transgender painter Lili Elbe, was banned in Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Malaysia on grounds of “moral depravity” in 2015.
Universal Pictures
17/46 Deadpool (2016)
After it was decided that Deadpool couldn’t be edited without affecting its plot, Chinese officials initially banned the film citing explicit content. Uzbekistan followed suit as the film “violated the country’s societal norms”, while it received heavy editing in order to be shown in India.
20th Century Fox
18/46 The Death of Stalin (2017)
Armando Iannucci’s 2017 comedy The Death of Stalin failed to make the cut in Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan because of its perceived anti-Soviet theme.
eOne Films
19/46 The Departed (2006)
Martin Scorsese’s crime thriller The Departed hit a nerve with China in 2006 thanks to a line of dialogue that suggested its government intends to use nuclear weapons on Taiwan, a sensitive issue for the country. The ban has never been lifted.
Warner Bros
20/46 District 9 (2009)
District 9, Neill Blomkamp’s science-fiction film from 2009, was slapped with a ban in Nigeria due to accusations of being xenophobic and racist towards its citizens.
TriStar Pictures
21/46 Fifty Shades of Grey (2015)
The adaptation of EL James’s erotic drama Fifty Shades of Grey may not have been as raunchy as some were hoping, but it was considered too explicit for audiences in Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates and Zimbabwe.
Universal Pictures
22/46 Funny Girl (1968)
William Wyler’s romantic musical Funny Girl was banned in Egypt because its male lead Omar Sharif – an Egyptian Muslim – is shown in a romantic storyline with the Jewish Barbra Streisand, who was vocal in her political support for Israel at the height of military tensions with Egypt in 1968.
Columbia Pictures
23/46 Ghostbusters (2016)
Paul Feig’s all-female reboot of Ghostbusters was denied a release in China due to censorship laws prohibiting the promotion of cults and superstitions. Not even changing the title to Super Power Dare-to-Die Team (yes, really) could help its cause.
Columbia Pictures
24/46 Goldfinger (1964)
Sean Connery’s third film as British spy James Bond, Goldfinger (1964), had been released in Israel for six weeks when it was revealed that one of its main actors, Gert Fröbe, had a Nazi past. It had the ban lifted when a Jewish survivor came forward with the revelation that his life and his mother’s were probably saved after being hidden from the Nazis by Fröbe.
United Artists
25/46 The Hunger Games (2012)
The country of Vietnam deemed the numerous murders shown in blockbuster The Hunger Games too violent for teenage audiences and decided to slap the film with an outright ban.
Lionsgate Films
26/46 Jules and Jim (1962)
François Truffaut’s beloved French drama Jules and Jim found itself at the centre of a ban in Italy for its “attitudes toward sex”. The ban was quickly lifted.
Gala
27/46 Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)
Not many people enjoyed 2017 sequel Kingsman: The Golden Circle, but the cinema censors in Cambodia sit top of that list. Thanks to the moment that sees the film’s antagonist working from a lair in a Cambodian temple, the Colin Firth action film was handed an indefinite ban.
20th Century Fox
28/46 Mad Max (1979)
It was a particularly gory death scene that saw Australian thriller Mad Max (1979) banned from being seen in New Zealand as it unintentionally mirrored an incident with a real gang shortly before it was released. The same scene saw the film banned in Sweden until 2005.
Roadshow Film Distributors
29/46 Milk (2008)
Milk, Gus Van Sant’s 2008 Oscar-winning biopic about gay rights activist and US politician Harvey Milk, was initially banned in Samoa with no reason given, though it was eventually revealed the film had been deemed “inappropriate and contradictory to Christian beliefs and Samoan culture” for its depiction of homosexuality.
Focus Features
30/46 Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979)
The religious satire featured in Monty Python’s Life of Brian was considered blasphemous in countries including Ireland, South Africa and Norway. Director Terry Jones used the controversy to the film’s advantage, putting up posters in Sweden with the tagline: “So funny, it was banned in Norway!”
Cinema International Corporation
31/46 Modern Times (1936)
Charlie Chaplin’s classic 1936 film Modern Times was banned in Nazi Germany for advocating Communism.
United Artists
32/46 Noah (2014)
Darren Aronofsky’s biblical drama Noah (2014) found itself the subject of a ban in China, as well as several Muslim countries, because it was perceived to contradict the teachings of Islam.
Paramount Pictures
33/46 Pulp Fiction (1994)
Malaysia disregarded Pulp Fiction for release and banned the Quentin Tarantino film scenes featuring drug abuse, explicit nudity and sexual violence.
Miramax Films
34/46 Rambo (2008)
Sylvester Stallone’s return as Rambo in 2008 – which he also directed – was deemed offensive by censors in of Burma who opposed the way the film depicted its country’s soldiers.
Lionsgate
35/46 Sausage Party (2016)
Officials in China were so worried that adults would assume animated film Sausage Party (2016) to be a children’s film that they slapped it with an outright ban. On the flip side, France gave the film a 12-rating.
Sony Pictures Releasing
36/46 Sex and the City 2 (2010)
It’s a wonder the first film of HBO series Sex and the City wasn’t banned in Vietnam considering the critically-maligned sequel – released in 2010 – was prohibited there due to a “conflict of cultural values”.
Warner Bros Pictures
37/46 Shrek 2 (2004)
Although brief, the ban on 2004 sequel Shrek 2 was incurred in Israel due to the Hebrew dub added to the film ahead of release. A particular joke aimed at Israeli singer David D’Or’s high voice prompted the musician to take legal action, halting the film from being released until its removal.
DreamWorks Pictures
38/46 The Simpsons Movie (2007)
The Simpsons Movie was banned in Burma due to the “juxtaposition of the colours yellow and red”, which is considered to convey support for rebel groups in the country.
20th Century Fox
39/46 South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
Trey Parker and Matt Stone ruffled plenty of feathers with their big-screen South Park film, Bigger, Longer & Uncut, and the comedic depiction of Saddam Hussein saw it banned in Iraq. The duo’s 2004 film Team America: World Police would later be banned by North Korea for its comedic depiction of Kim Jong-Il.
Warner Bros
40/46 300 (2006)
Iran didn’t take too kindly to Zack Snyder’s depiction of the Persian military in his 2006 film 300.
Warner Bros Pictures
41/46 2012 (2009)
North Korea suppressed 2012 from release in 2009 because the film depicted what the government considered to be an important year for the nation in a negative light (it coincided with its first leader Kim Il-Sung’s 100th birthday). According to reports, several people were arrested for viewing imported copies of the disaster film and were charged with “grave provocation against the development of the state”.
Columbia Pictures
42/46 The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Despite permitting other Martin Scorsese films to make the cut, countries including Malaysia, Nepal, Zimbabwe and Kenya banned The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) for its profanities and depiction of sex and intense drug use.
Paramount Pictures
43/46 Wonder Woman (2017)
Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot’s past in the Israeli army sparked a campaign to boycott the DC film in Lebanon due to conflict with both countries. The 2017 film was later banned there as well as Qatar and Tunisia.
Warner Bros Pictures
44/46 Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008)
Censors in Trinidad banned Kevin Smith’s 2008 comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno out of fear that teenagers would mimic the plot and make their own porn movies.
The Weinstein Company
45/46 Zoolander (2001)
Ben Stiller’s 2001 comedy Zoolander was deemed “unsuitable” for release in Malaysia due to its negative depiction of the country. Shockingly, Iran also banned the film over its perceived support of gay rights.
Paramount Pictures
46/46 Any film featuring Claire Danes
Claire Danes’ honesty regarding her time working in Manila came with a price. After telling Premiere Magazine the country “smelled like cockroaches”, the council passed a motion to ban the Homeland star from the city and prevent her films from being shown. Although Danes issued an apology, Manila said they will lift the ban when they are “satisfied”.
20th Century Fox
“You can’t allow bureaucrats to make decisions that are fundamental to what it means to be an American, and our free speech is one of those things,” said Mr Kotler. “When the government starts to infringe on our rights, that’s when the individual citizen must speak up.”
Despite being born in New Jersey, Mr Kotler has been a Fulham fan for decades, ever since he visited Craven Cottage and watched the team play.
He regularly travels from California to watch matches at Craven Cottage, catching an 11-hour flight to get back to his university in time to teach students on Tuesday.
He applied for his personalised number plate after Fulham’s promotion winning 2017-18 season, but in June 2018 received a letter from the DMV saying the application had been refused because it carried “connotations offensive to good taste and decency.”
Mr Kotler demanded a review and submitted a series of documents proving how “Come on You Whites” was just a phrase used by Fulham fans to express their support. The documents now form Exhibit 2 of Mr Kotler’s lawsuit.
They showed that Fulham’s official Twitter hashtag is #COYW and the club’s Pakistani-American owner Shadid Khan likes to use the phrase in his letters, and also included a report by US media outlet NBC stating: “Newly promoted Fulham has already shelled out nearly $50 million this summer as the Whites look to secure Premier League status.”
The DMW, however, was unmoved and in July Mr Kotler received a letter telling him “We are remaining with our original determination that the configuration is unacceptable. ‘Come on You Whites’ can have racial connotations.”
“It’s just a shirt colour,” an indignant Mr Kotler told the BBC. “The people at the DMV are either extra thick or very PC.”
Mr Kotler, whose lawsuit explains that “Fulham is one of many sports teams that is described by the colour of its uniforms”, added that he was shocked by the refusal.
“This is crazy,” he said. “It was the furthest thing from my mind that anyone would object to it. Many clubs in Britain are known by their colour – the blues, the clarets. Nobody thought the Liverpool reds were communists.”
Mr Kotler is being supported by the libertarian-leaning Pacific Legal Foundation, which accused the DMV of an “attempt to make itself the speech police.”
A foundation spokesman said: “You can call Jon a sports fan or a First Amendment expert, but the DMV’s misguided efforts to regulate license plates have misbranded Jon as a racist.”
The DMV has said it does not comment on pending legal cases, but in one of its letters to Mr Kotler, an official wrote: “I am sure you can appreciate how difficult it is to balance an individual’s constitutional right to free speech and expression while protecting the sensibilities of all segments of our population.”
Los Angeles Magazine reported that California’s DMV uses a 44-page document entitled Common Personalised Licence Plate Configuration Denials as the starting point for deciding what is and isn’t acceptable.
When confronted by an unfamiliar word or series of letters, DMW officials may also use online resources like Google Translate, Wikipedia and Urban Dictionary to work out what it means.
