Mississippi Bans Plate Covers, Frames and Brackets That Hide Any Character, But Exempts the County Name

Mississippi issues a single tag, not a pair, and § 27-19-31(2)(a) says where it goes. One license tag and up to two license decals are furnished for all vehicles and must be fastened immovably twelve inches or more above the ground, at the rear of the vehicle under or over the rear light, with the number upright so that it is plainly visible and legible at all times and at night at a distance of sixty feet. That sixty-foot night-legibility standard is the practical test a smoked or tinted cover fails, because a cover that still reads in daylight at arm's length can easily fall short under headlights at sixty feet. Tractors and other vehicles pulling trailers, semitrailers or farm implements get an alternative placement, twelve inches or more above the ground on the front or the back, still upright.

The obstruction sentence is broader than a simple anti-cover rule. It bars defacing, covering or obstructing the plate, all characters and any legally affixed decals by "any object, decal, sticker, paint, marking or license plate bracket or holder," so an ordinary bracket or novelty frame is inside the prohibition, not outside it, if it sits over printed matter. The offence sentence that follows repeats the list and adds "or any other thing or device," then supplies the reading test: the violation is complete when the characters and any legally affixed decals cannot be read. Mississippi's month and year decals sit in the lower right corner of the tag under the same subsection, which is exactly where a bottom-heavy frame tends to land.

The county-name carve-out is the distinguishing feature of the Mississippi rule. Private passenger tags must carry a county designation naming the county of registration, and the same subsection then says it shall not be unlawful for the county name to be partially or completely obstructed from view by any object, decal, sticker or license plate bracket or holder. So Mississippi has drawn a line inside its own tag: the registration characters and the decals are protected, and the county line at the bottom is not.

A second consequence is easy to miss. The subsection closes by providing that unless the tag with current decals is fastened to the vehicle as the section requires, the vehicle is regarded as operating without a license tag and the owner or operator is liable for the penalties provided. A cover or mounting that defeats the immovable-fastening, height or legibility requirements therefore risks more than the $25 obstruction fine; it can convert the stop into a no-tag matter.

One currency point matters when reading this section on the official code. Section 27-19-31 prints in two versions, one marked effective until January 1, 2025 and one marked effective from and after January 1, 2025, the later text carrying Laws 2024, ch. 409, § 3. The differences between the two are about rental fleets registered under § 27-19-66.2, and the plate-display, obstruction, penalty and county-name sentences are word for word the same in both. The current version's history line also records Laws 2023, ch. 459, § 1, effective January 1, 2024, and runs back through Laws 2001, ch. 596, § 4 to Code 1930, § 5619.

00 on conviction. The statute assigns liability by conduct, so the person who defaces, covers or obstructs the tag is the person charged, whether that is the owner, the driver or an installer. Separately, a tag that is not fastened as the section requires makes the vehicle one "regarded as operating without a license tag," with the owner or operator liable for the penalties the tag statutes provide, which is a materially worse outcome than the $25 obstruction fine. Because Mississippi repealed its entire motor-vehicle inspection chapter, §§ 63-13-1 through 63-13-29, by Laws of 2015, ch.

417, § 1, effective July 1, 2015, no annual inspection exists at which a frame or cover would be spotted; the offence is found at the roadside. The one safe harbour is the express one: an object, decal, sticker or plate bracket that hides only the county name is lawful, and nothing in the section requires the county line to be visible.