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A Northern California woman is upset that her local Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) is making an issue out of her personalized “IAMISIS” license plate.
According to the woman, Isis Wharton, the license plate on her Kia is meant to be a way to express her unique identity.
“I’m proud of my name,” she told local outlet KCRA. “I’m proud that it’s on my car. I feel like, driving around, it looks cool.”
Plus, she adamantly maintained, she wasn’t named after the Islamic State, which goes by ISIS or ISIL. She was named after the Egyptian Goddess known as ISIS.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. woman named Isis Wharton in fighting for her right to her freedom of expression. DMV stated that the plate’s configuration is non-compliant with Title 13 requirements, as it could be construed as a reference to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) pic.twitter.com/gy4LHYUMjI
— Charles Builder (@charles_builder) September 15, 2025
What’s weird is that not only has she had the plate since 2022, but she’s renewed it multiple times without any issues.
“I was confused since I’ve had it for so long, and I was honestly super hurt,” she told station KABC. “I just did my registration a couple of months ago, and they didn’t say anything then either.”
Last Friday, her DMV sent her a letter alleging that her plate violates state laws because it could be linked to the terrorist group ISIS.
“Dear Isis, the Department of Motor Vehicles has reviewed its records, and it was determined that the personalized license plates ‘I AM ISIS’ assigned to your 2021 Kia contain a configuration of letters/ and or numbers that are non-compliant with the requirements of Title 13,” the letter read.
“Regardless of your intention, the configuration ‘I AM ISIS’ can be construed as ‘I AM ISLAMIC STATE OF IRAQ AND SYRIA (ISIS),’” the letter continued.
(Video Credit: ABC7)
Speaking with KCRA, McGeorge School of Law professor Leslie Jacobs asserted that Wharton’s license plate is protected by the First Amendment.
“The free speech clause protects people saying their own messages on personalized license plates,” she said. “And so, most likely, the DMV is not going to be able to prevent her from saying that.”
As an example, Jacobs pointed to a 2020 decision in which a federal judge ruled that a DMV can’t censor personalized license plates because they count as protected free speech.
“The United States Supreme Court has said that specialty license plates, those are the ones like Save Lake Tahoe, can be government speech,” Jacob said. “And maybe the government can prevent people from having specialty license plates, but these are personal license plates. And so, they’re going to say it’s her own speech.”
(Video Credit: KCRA)
As to what happens next, the DMV “has given Wharton until Sept. 25 to request a hearing, which she is currently working on drafting,” according to KCRA.
If she doesn’t meet the deadline, then her plate will be revoked.
All this comes about two weeks after the American Civil Liberties Union’s Virginia chapter joined a suit against the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles on behalf of a local resident whose personalized plate had been revoked.
The local, Curtis M. Whateley, had a plate since 2023 that read “FTP&ATF.”
“But in May 2024, the DMV recalled the license plate, claiming the message could be perceived as profane, obscene, or vulgar, and used to condone violence,” according to the ACLU.
Whateley subsequently filed suit, to which the DMV responded by claiming that personalized plates are government speech, not private speech (remember what Jacobs said?).
In May, a federal judge agreed with the DMV by citing a 2015 Supreme Court decision involving specialty Texas plates that were deemed to be government speech.
But the ACLU isn’t backing down.
“Vanity plates are a way for people to express constitutionally-protected personal views – including political ones,” ACLU-VA senior supervising attorney Matt Callahan said. “Government officials should not be allowed to censor Virginians simply because they disagree with them.”
Whateley has since appealed his case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. The appeal is backed by the ACLU’s Virginia branch.
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