Tennessee Bans Tinted License Plate Covers Even If the Plate Is Readable

Most states test a plate cover by asking whether the plate can still be read. Tennessee asks that question too, and then adds a second, tougher test that a readable plate can still fail. The last sentence of § 55-4-110(b) reads: "No tinted materials may be placed over a license plate even if the information upon the license plate is not concealed." That clause removes the usual argument that a smoked or coloured cover is fine because the characters remain visible from ten feet. In Tennessee that argument loses on the face of the statute.

Alongside it sits the more familiar condition test. Every plate must be securely fastened in a horizontal position so it cannot swing, at a height of not less than 12 inches from the ground measured to the bottom of the plate, in a place and position to be clearly visible, and it must be maintained free from foreign materials and in a condition to be clearly legible. A clear, untinted cover is not caught by the tinted materials sentence, but it is still a foreign material placed over the plate, and glare, crazing, road film or condensation inside it will fail the legibility and visibility test on its own terms.

One obstruction is expressly forgiven. Since Public Chapter 174 of 2021, approved by the governor on April 20, 2021 and effective on becoming law, the statute provides that the mounting or placement of a trailer hitch ball in front of a registration plate shall not be considered when deciding whether the plate is clearly visible. Tennessee added that sentence to end plate obstruction stops of pickups towing nothing.

Motorcycles have their own mounting rule in the same subsection: if a motorcycle is equipped with vertically mounted license plate brackets, its plate must be mounted vertically with the top of the plate fastened along the right vertical edge. Which end of the vehicle carries the plate is set by subsection (a), and Tennessee is a rear plate state for passenger cars, for pickup and panel bodied trucks rated at three quarter ton or less and for motor homes, while all other trucks and truck tractors carry the plate on the front.

Lighting is treated as part of the same offence. Subsection (c), added by Public Chapter 223 of 2013 effective July 1, 2013, requires any vehicle factory equipped to illuminate its registration plate to keep that lamp lit whenever the headlights are lit, with antique motor vehicles defined in § 55-4-111(b) excepted. The 2013 act also softened the consequence: if the violation results solely from failing to illuminate the plate, the fine in subsection (e) is the only amount assessed, no litigation tax under title 67, chapter 4, part 6 and no clerk's fee or court costs may be added, the offence is a nonmoving violation and no points go on the driver's record.

Two other carve outs finish the section. Public Chapter 103 of 2019, effective July 1, 2019, added subsection (d): the owner or operator of a historic military vehicle, meaning one at least 25 years old at the time of application, manufactured for a country's military forces and maintained in its military design and markings, need not display the plate at all, but must carry it in the vehicle and produce it for any law enforcement officer on request. Separately, § 55-10-210 makes the electronic version of a plate cover a crime in its own right: possessing a license plate flipper with criminal negligence is a Class B misdemeanor, and manufacturing, selling or distributing one is a Class A misdemeanor.

A violation of § 55-4-110 is a Class C misdemeanor under subsection (e)(1), and all proceeds of the fines it imposes go to the state general fund. Subsection (e)(2) gives a driver a way out of court: a person charged may submit $10 for a first violation and $20 for a second or later violation to the clerk of the court with jurisdiction in the county where the offence is alleged to have occurred, in lieu of appearing. If the case is not settled that way, § 40-35-111(e)(3) caps a Class C misdemeanor at 30 days and a fine of $50.

A lighting only violation under subsection (c) is capped at the subsection (e) fine, carries no litigation tax, clerk's fee or court costs, is classified as nonmoving and adds no points. The plate flipper offence in § 55-10-210 is much heavier: a Class B misdemeanor for possession, up to six months and $500 under § 40-35-111(e)(2), and a Class A misdemeanor for selling one, up to 11 months 29 days and $2,500 under § 40-35-111(e)(1). A vehicle found with an installed flipper may be seized or impounded as evidence, although the owner or operator present at the scene must be given the chance to remove the device promptly if that can be done safely, in which case only the flipper is seized as contraband. If the vehicle is impounded, its owner pays the towing and impound fees and the reasonable cost of removing the device.