He said religious license plates could be offensive to people like himself who don’t believe in “deities of any kind.”

Magee proposes two solutions in his letter: the approval of his license plate application or the recall of plates with a religious point of view. He said he would prefer if the state chose the recall option.

He’s surprised by the number of religious plates in North Dakota. Magee is originally from Maryland and has lived in Fargo for two years.

A federal district court decided in 1994 that a ban by Virginia’s Division of Motor Vehicles on reference to deities was unconstitutional.

“I think the easiest thing to do would be to just give the man his plate,” said Robert Boston, a senior policy analyst for Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Boston said he did not think the state had grounds to ban Magee’s application because it did not contain obscenity.

“The state has created a forum for free speech and has prevented this individual from participating in it,” he said.

Magee said he had expected his application to be rejected when he submitted it.