CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles has agreed to loosen restrictions on personalized license plates after a federal court challenge claimed its policies were unconstitutional.

The agreement, outlined in a consent order signed by U.S. District Judge Dan Aaron Polster, resolves a lawsuit brought by two Ohio men, William Saki and Cyrus Mahdavi. Both men had their applications for personalized plates rejected by the BMV.

Saki, of Lakewood, had his application for a plate reading "GAY" rejected. Mahdavi, of Strongsville, was denied a plate that would have read "MUSLIM."

The BMV conceded in a Zoom hearing that it erred in rejecting the men’s applications and that their requested plates will now be approved. The agency also agreed to review its database and remove restrictions on other words that were improperly blocked.

The BMV's policy for rejecting plates is now limited to a three-part standard: a plate must be “offensive, disparaging or socially insensitive.” This standard was established in a 2001 settlement, which similarly challenged the BMV's plate approval process.

As part of the recent agreement, the BMV will also update its website to include instructions for applicants who believe their requests have been wrongly rejected.

The complaint argued that the BMV's approval process was "standardless and unconstitutional," leading to arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement.

According to court documents, the BMV had previously approved plates with words like "STR8" and "HETERO," while rejecting "GAY" and "LESBIAN." Similarly, plates for other religions, such as "ATHEIST," "BAPTIST," and "HINDU," were approved, but "MUSLIM" and "JEW" were rejected.

The BMV's system was criticized in the complaint for allowing censors to make subjective decisions based on personal interpretations. For instance, an application for "NIU BI," which means "awesome" in Chinese, was rejected because a BMV censor found a different, profane meaning on UrbanDictionary.com. The BMV also reportedly approved a plate reading "AXE HOLE" while rejecting "AXEHOLE."

The court's consent order dismisses the case.