Alabama Plate Covers: No Cover Statute, but the Rear Tag Must Stay Plainly Visible

The question a driver actually asks is whether a smoked or clear plastic shield over the tag is legal in Alabama. The Code of Alabama never answers it by name. Searching the Legislature's code database for the phrases a cover statute would have to use returns nothing: "license plate cover," "plate frame," "tag frame," "obscure the license" and "obstruct the license" each return zero sections. Alabama simply never enacted the express anti-cover provision that some states bolted onto their plate-display sections.

What exists instead is a visibility duty and a legibility duty, and between them they do the same work. Section 32-6-51 is the display rule. It applies to every motor vehicle operator on any city street or other public highway in the state, and it requires that person to "at all times keep attached and plainly visible on the rear end" of the vehicle a license tag or plate as prescribed and furnished by the Department of Revenue. Two features of that sentence matter. "At all times" leaves no allowance for a cover that is legible from directly behind but not at an angle, and the duty falls on the operator, not only on the registered owner, so a borrowed car is the driver's problem. Alabama requires a rear plate only; the section says nothing about a front plate.

The second duty is in the lighting article. Section 32-5-240(c)(3) requires every motor vehicle to have a tail lamp or a separate lamp constructed and placed so as to illuminate the rear registration plate with a white light and render it "clearly legible from a distance of 50 feet to the rear," and it requires that lamp to be wired so it lights whenever the head lamps or auxiliary driving lamps are lit. A tinted or mirrored cover that swallows the tag light at night fails this rule even if the plate reads perfectly in daylight, and 50 feet is the measurement an officer works from.

A third provision reaches deliberate concealment rather than a cover. Section 40-12-265(a) makes it unlawful for any person to mutilate or alter, for the purpose of deception, any motor vehicle tag, plate or validation stamp, or to use tags, plates or validation stamps in imitation of or substituted for authorized ones. Note the intent element: ordinary dirt or a dealer frame is not covered by this subsection, while a plate doctored to read differently is. The same section imposes an affirmative duty to arrest on sheriffs, police officers, state troopers, license inspectors, deputy license inspectors and field agents of the Department of Revenue, and sets the fine at not less than $25 and not more than $100 for each offense, with a $1.50 arrest fee for the license inspector taxed as costs.

One closely related section is often cited by mistake. Section 13A-8-22 makes obscuring the identity of a vehicle a Class C felony, but it reaches the manufacturer's serial number or other distinguishing identification number or mark on the vehicle or a component part, expressly excepting tires. It is a VIN offense, not a license plate offense, and covering a tag does not trigger it.

The penalty under § 32-6-51 is the one that surprises people. A violation is a misdemeanor punished on conviction by a fine not exceeding $500 and, in addition, a prohibition on driving a motor vehicle in Alabama for not less than 60 days nor more than six months. That driving prohibition is written into the display section itself, so an obscured or missing rear tag is not merely a fine-only equipment ticket in Alabama. Section 40-12-265(c) supplies a gentler administrative path for improper display: a person using a vehicle with an improper license plate or validation stamp, or failing to have the tag, plate or stamp properly displayed, must first be notified in writing by the license inspector or field agent.

If the person fails or refuses to comply within five days of that notice, the inspector issues a citation to appear instanter and procure the proper license or apply for a replacement, and a person who then fails or refuses to comply with the inspector's citation shall be arrested and, on conviction, fined as provided in § 40-12-265(a), which is $25 to $100 per offense. 50 citation fee in each case where a citation has been served. If a tag becomes so mutilated as to be illegible, § 40-12-265(b) requires the owner to apply to the county probate judge or the local licensing authority, surrender the mutilated tag and pay $2, of which $1 goes to the Department of Revenue and $1 is retained for the service, and a replacement tag or validation stamp is issued at no further charge.