Ohio bans "hateful" anti-Michigan football license plates

(CBS/AP) COLUMBUS, Ohio. - Ohio State football fans are being silenced in their rivalry with Michigan, by an unlikely source - the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles.

The Columbus Dispatch reports that the bureau has been rejecting vanity plates that are too lewd, rude or crude towards a person or group, in this case, the U. of Michigan football team, Ohio State's archrivals.  Plates such as "HATEMI", "UMSUXS", and "UMH8ER" are some of the offenders.

Jamie Bryan, the Bureau Assistant Registrar, says requests for these type of anti-Michigan plates start coming in at the beginning of football season.

Ohio prohibits plates that include profanity, sexually explicit words, or that promote violence or illegal behavior. Gary Daniels, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, said it's wrong for states to create a way for people to express themselves and then limit what they can say.

On the other side of the field, Michigan officials say that their fans may have better luck with their plates. Fred Woodhams, of the Michigan secretary of state's office, said some of the license plate shout-outs wouldn't be "automatically rejected" there.

There was no list of rejected vanity plates that Michigan could provide, but an online request form showed that one of the sentiments Michigan does allow is "IH8OHST" (I hate Ohio State, for the acronym-impaired).

The Ohio State Buckeyes will play their annual game against Michigan's Wolverines Saturday in Ann Arbor, Mich.