Photo by philliefan99

A new petition on the White House’s website is calling on President Obama to put the city’s “Taxation Without Representation” license plates on the presidential limo, a symbolic step that he stubbornly refused to take during his first term.

The protest license plates were created in 2000, and President Clinton used them on his limo. President George W. Bush, never an outspoken advocate for D.C. voting rights, removed the plates and replaced them with an alternative design not bearing the pro-voting rights message; Obama has done the same.

Local legislators and activists have been pushing Obama to change the limo’s license plates since he was first elected. Shortly after being inaugurated, an Obama spokesperson simply said that the White House hadn’t gotten around to considering whether to make the change, while a few months later then Press Secretary Robert Gibbs testily dismissed the possibility.

“I think rather than change the logo around the license plate, the president is committed instead to changing the status of the District of Columbia,” said Gibbs. “I guess I would ask you to ask people in Washington whether they’d like to have that status changed, or that symbolism screwed onto the back of a limousine?”

The petition was uploaded yesterday by voting rights advocacy group D.C. Vote, which said that it wanted Obama to use the license plates during the inaugural parade to bring attention to the city’s longstanding second-class status.

“This is an opportunity for the people of D.C., and for supporters of our fight for full democracy everywhere, to elevate our struggle to a new level,” said James Jones, the group’s spokesman. “We are very grateful for President Obama’s support for our struggle for equal rights. He has stated publicly that we should have the same voting rights as every other American. Displaying the Taxation Without Representation plate is simply an expression of the truth about D.C.’s political status.”

If the petition manages to get 25,000 signatures in 30 days, White House officials say that they will formally issue a response to it.