Man fights to get personalized license plate IB6UB9 back.

A Santa Fe man said his fight to get his controversial license plate back is  about protecting everyone’s rights.

Robert Anaya’s vanity  license plate was initially approved back in 2009, but he just got a letter from  the Motor Vehicle Division saying it’s revoked because it’s considered  obscene. The plate in question reads IB6UB9.

“If something is obscene  or profanity, we have no place for it in New Mexico,” Taxation and Revenue  Department Secretary Demesia Padilla said.

Anaya said his plate is  not a sexual reference, but an inside joke with a friend from a night at a  casino.

However, the state said  it’s gotten enough complaints to cancel the plate. The state can’t provide those  complaints because officials say they weren’t written or recorded.

Anaya’s attorney said the  license plate is not obscene, according to the definition in the  constitution.  He said in order for something to be obscene it has to be  intolerable.  If that were the case, the attorney says, people couldn’t  have any license plates with the number combination 6 and 9.  In fact, he  goes on to say those numbers couldn’t be consecutively on house numbers,  telephone numbers, prices and sports jerseys.

“If you allow the  government to start chipping away at our constitutional rights, it can have more  serious implications in the future,” attorney Leon Howard said. “Mr. Anaya feels  bullied by the MVD.”

Anaya has appealed the  MVD’s decision and is waiting for a hearing.  In the meantime, he’s using a  generic state-approved license plate.