§463.137.  Special prestige license plates; Gold Star

A.  The secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections shall establish a special prestige license plate to be known as the Gold Star plate.  The secretary shall not require any minimum number of applicants prior to establishing or issuing this plate.  The license plate shall be restricted to the vehicles provided for in Subsection E of this Section.  The secretary shall design the plate, and it shall include the words "Gold Star Family".

B.  The secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections shall issue the prestige license plates, as prescribed herein, on receipt of an application and written evidence that the applicant is the owner of a motor vehicle and is a member of the immediate family of a member of the armed forces of the United States who lost his life under any of the following conditions:

(1)  During World War I, World War II, or any subsequent period of armed hostilities in which the United States was engaged before July 1, 1958.

(2)  Anytime after June 30, 1958, under any of the following conditions:

(a)  While engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States.

(b)  While engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing foreign force.

(c)  While serving with friendly forces engaged in an armed conflict in which the United States is not a belligerent party against an opposing armed force.

(3)  Anytime after March 28, 1973, as a result of any of the following:

(a)  An international terrorist attack against the United States or foreign nation friendly to the United States, recognized as such an attack by the secretary of defense for the United States.

(b)  Military operations while serving outside the United States, including commonwealths, territories, and possessions of the United States, as part of a peacekeeping force.

C.  For the purposes of this Section, a member of the immediate family shall include: a widow or widower, remarried or not; a mother, father, stepmother, stepfather, mother through adoption, father through adoption, and foster parents who stood in loco parentis; grandparents; each child, stepchild, and adopted child; and each brother, half-brother, sister, and half-sister.

D.  The Gold Star motor vehicle prestige license plates shall be issued in the same manner as other motor vehicle license plates. Qualified immediate family members applying for the plates shall present to the department a copy of the death certificate of the armed forces member who lost his life.  The charge for this license plate shall be the same as for regular license plates and shall include a handling fee of three dollars and fifty cents, both to be retained by the department for administrative costs.

E.  The Gold Star motor vehicle prestige license plates shall be used only upon personally or jointly owned private passenger cars, pickup trucks, vans, motorcycles, and recreational vehicles registered in the name, or jointly in the name, of the member making application, and when issued to the applicant shall be used upon the vehicle for which issued in lieu of the standard license plate normally issued for the vehicle.  The license plate issued hereunder shall not be transferable between motor vehicle owners.  In the event the owner of a vehicle bearing the distinctive plate should sell, trade, exchange, or otherwise dispose of it, the plate shall be retained by the owner to whom issued.

F.  The department shall establish rules and regulations as are necessary to implement this Section.

Acts 2008, No. 516, §1, eff. June 1, 2009; Acts 2009, No. 224, §2, eff. June 1, 2009.