The state of Indiana has lately gotten itself into a God-awful mess over license plates. It no sooner won one lawsuit for its “In God We Trust” plates than it had to change its mind to get rid of another suit filed by a woman who was refused a “BE GODS” vanity plate. Maybe it's time for the state to rethink this whole specialty-plate business.

The “In God We Trust” plates have been a huge hit with motorists. The trouble is that the state hasn't charged the $15 administrative fee it does for most specialty plates. That plate, said the lawsuit brought by the ACLU, constitutes a “private religious message” and should be subject to the same fee on most advocacy group plates. Not so, said a three-judge panel of the Indiana Court of Appeals: “We are not convinced that ‘In God We Trust,' our national motto, can be categorized as a purely private message since the license plate can be construed to express either a public or private sense of national citizenship or patriotism in addition to a private expression of religious belief,” wrote Judge Margret Robb.

If only the story ended there. The state would have looked reasonable. It was just accommodating the people's desire to express their religious sentiments in a way that harmed no one else or the society at large.

But then came the lawsuit from Liz Ferris. For years, she had “BE GODS” vanity plates. But this year, she ran afoul of new Bureau of Motor Vehicle rules classifying vanity plates as “limited public forums” from which all references to religion, politics, gender and sexual orientation are banned. The state relented and grandfathered her plates in, but not before a contradiction became painfully apparent:

The state can approve a religious sentiment as a specialty plate, but a citizen can't have one as a vanity plate? What real difference is there between “In God We Trust” and “BE GODS”? If Indiana were trying to prove the point that it wants to set up a state-approved religion, it couldn't have done a better job.

Letting people express personal sentiments on license plates seems like a reasonable idea, and directing some of the money raised to worthy groups is hard to argue with. But look how messy - and time-consuming - it becomes in reality. Maybe the state should go back to one boring license plate that just identifies the car and collects money for the privilege of driving.