Kansas Bans Clear Plate Covers, Not Just Tinted Ones

Two Kansas sections govern what may sit over a license plate, and they carry different penalties. The specific one is K.S.A. 8-15,110, added by L. 2010, ch. 151. It makes it unlawful for any person to attach and display on any vehicle a license plate that is covered, in whole or in part, with any clear or opaque material or any other plastic-like material that affects the plate's visibility or reflectivity. Three features of that sentence do the work. Clear material is named alongside opaque material, so the common defense that a cover is see-through fails on the face of the statute. In whole or in part means a bracket or frame that hides only the state name or the registration decal is enough. And reflectivity is listed separately from visibility, which reaches films that leave a plate readable to the eye while defeating the retroreflective sheeting a camera or a spotlight relies on.

The general one is K.S.A. 8-133. Subsection (c) requires that every license plate be securely fastened to prevent the plate from swinging, mounted at a height not less than 12 inches from the ground measured from the bottom of the plate, fastened in a place and position to be clearly visible, and maintained free from foreign materials and in a condition to be clearly legible. Subsection (a) makes Kansas a rear-plate state and goes further than most: a Kansas registered vehicle shall not have a license plate attached to the front at all, except for the five classes listed in subsection (b), which are truck tractors, model-year plates on antique vehicles under K.S.A. 8-172, personalized plates issued under K.S.A. 8-132(c), concrete mixer trucks, and dump trucks of 26,000 pounds or more. So a decorative front plate on an ordinary Kansas car is itself a display problem, quite apart from any cover.

The two sections cross-reference each other on the official statute pages, and the case annotations printed under K.S.A. 8-133 show how the rule is actually enforced in Kansas. U.S. v. Triska, 574 F. Supp. 2d 1208 (2008), upheld a stop where a license plate bracket covered the name of the state, in violation of K.S.A. 8-133. U.S. v. Orduna-Martinez, 491 F. Supp. 2d 1021 (2007), found no Fourth Amendment violation where a plate holder obscured the plate, and a 2009 decision in the same matter, 561 F.3d 1134 (10th Cir.), upheld a stop where the date on a registration decal was obstructed. State v. Hayes, 8 Kan. App. 2d 531 (1983), applied the section to an out-of-state tag whose state name was obscured. The practical lesson is that in Kansas an obscured plate is a full traffic stop, and Kansas courts have repeatedly refused to suppress what the stop then turned up.

A Kansas plate cover is therefore judged by what it hides or dulls, not by whether it is tinted, smoked or perfectly transparent. A frame that clears the numerals but crosses KANSAS, the county name or the sticker still falls inside the in whole or in part language of K.S.A. 8-15,110 and inside the clearly legible duty in K.S.A. 8-133(c).

A. A. A. 8-2118(b). A. A. A. is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $2,500, or jail of not less than 30 days and not more than six months, or both, unless a different penalty is prescribed. A. A. 8-15,110. A. 8-133 show.