GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A lawsuit over stymied efforts to get personalized license plates for "INF1DL" and "WAR SUX" is headed toward trial.

A Grand Rapids federal judge on Friday, May 22, refused to dismiss a lawsuit against Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson and another employee over the plate denials.

Michael Matwyuk and David DeVarti are jointly suing the officials.

They say their requests for personalized plates were denied because of an overly broad Secretary of State guideline that allows denial of plates that are "offensive to good taste and decency."

Matwyuk eventually was issued the "INF1DL" plate. Secretary of State officials said the denial was an administrative error.

But U.S. District Court Judge Gordon Quist said the approval does not matter, because the plate request initially was denied and Matwyuk is challenging what he deems as "overly broad discretion" by the officials.

In an opinion released Friday, he wrote the following:

"Although the Department of State has adopted internal guidelines for augment the statute by providing some definite standards, the guidelines do no alleviate the potential fdor viewpoint discrimination.

"In fact, the guidelines, which preclude combinations that are irreverent toward 'sacred things,' including God, and that negatively portray a given racial, religious, ethnic or socioeconomic group, including persons of a particular gender or sexual orientation, explicitly sanction viewpoint discrimination."

Secretary of State attorneys argued that the "WAR SUX" request, specifically "SUX," can carry a sexual connotation inappropriate for children. But the judge said it's not clear anyone would take that view.

E-mail John Tunison: jtunison@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/johntunison