{"id":204129,"date":"2026-03-24T16:51:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T16:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/204129\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T16:51:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T16:51:13","slug":"florida-law-challenged-in-federal-court-after-drivers-face-criminal-charges-for-obscuring-license-plates-with-frames","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/204129\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida law challenged in federal court after drivers face criminal charges for \u2018obscuring\u2019 license plates with frames"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">A Florida law meant to keep license plates clearly visible is now facing a federal challenge after some drivers were criminally charged over something as simple as a license plate frame.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The law, which took effect in October 2025, increased penalties for obscuring license plates, turning what used to be a minor violation into a criminal offense in some cases. Drivers now risk up to 60 days in jail and fines up to $500 for certain infractions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">News4JAX spoke with Anna Quesada, an attorney and partner at the Ticket Toro Law Firm, who says the law is inconsistently enforced.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cThe law is so vaguely written because it lacks definition,\u201d Quesada said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t define what counts as obscuring a license plate or to what degree interference becomes criminal behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Her team used AI to review public records statewide and discovered the law is applied differently depending on the county. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">You can visit their interactive state-wide map <a href=\"https:\/\/tickettoro.ai\/data-analysis\/tag-alteration\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/tickettoro.ai\/data-analysis\/tag-alteration\">here<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cYou have counties coming out and saying it\u2019s alright\u2026 then in Broward County you have somebody that gets arrested for blocking the \u2018S\u2019 in Sunshine State,\u201d Quesada said. \u201cThe poor man has a panic attack. He\u2019s taken to jail.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Ticket Toro became involved after a client in Broward received a criminal citation for driving off a dealership lot with a new car that included a license plate frame the dealership provided.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Her firm has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to stop enforcement of the law, have it declared unconstitutional, and remove any citations or arrests from drivers\u2019 records.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Three months after the law about obscuring license plates went into effect, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles sent a memo to all Florida law enforcement agencies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">In it, the department said that as long as license plate frames do not block the plate number or the registration sticker, they\u2019re legal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Until the federal court rules, experts recommend that Florida drivers ensure their license plate number and registration sticker are fully visible and avoid frames or decorations that could obscure these elements.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Florida law meant to keep license plates clearly visible is now facing a federal challenge after some&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,45418,99,729],"class_list":{"0":"post-204129","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-florida","9":"tag-florida-headlines","10":"tag-florida-news","11":"tag-license-plates","12":"tag-politics","13":"tag-traffic"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}