Edward Odquina has filed a lawsuit against the City and County of Honolulu for revoking a license plate officials issued and later decided was offensive.
The owner of a personalized Hawaii auto license plate that says “FCKBLM” has a message for Honolulu city officials threatening to sue him to take back the plate — FCKHNL.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court last week, Edward Odquina says the City and County of Honolulu has violated his free speech rights by seeking to revoke the plate, which Odquina lawfully obtained in early 2021.
In the 23-page complaint, Odquina’s attorney, Kevin O’Grady, asserts the city and state are essentially squelching Odquina’s speech with laws governing license plates that are unconstitutional on their face and as applied in Odquina’s situation.
“Odquina has very strong beliefs and views including political beliefs and views and he wishes to express his views through a personalized license plate for a vehicle he owns and a business he started,” the suit says.
The suit goes on to outline some of these beliefs, which Odquina hasn’t previously made public.
After outlining some history of the Black Lives Matter organization as founded after the death of Trayvon Martin, a black teenager who in 2013 was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer who was later acquitted of murder, the movement gained momentum and prominence after the killing of George Floyd, another black man, who died while being arrested and for which several police officers later were charged and convicted.
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