TexasCHLforum.com

No, police are not required to have any reason to run a plate. It is not considered a search by the courts. The logic is that the state owns the database of information, so you can have no real expectation of privacy in data owned by someone else, and a license plate is in public view, so you cannot have a realistic expectation of privacy in something that is clearly viewable to the public.

I disagree since I think I do have a reasonable expectation of rpivacy int he data I was forced to turn over for tax collection purposes to the state (that is all registration is, another tax you must pay) and I was forced to display my tax receipt (the plate). If they can search the database at any time, and I am forced to display the plate, it would seem like compelled consent to me.

But the American people has bought into the concept of driving is a privilege and not a right, and that it is alright to require these licenses, without ever asking themselves why the government wanted to have them in the first place.