The D.C. license plate that Mendelson and Cheh left at the White House. President Obama’s limo currently sports plates that simply says “A Capital City.” Photo by @AlanBlinder

Will President Obama’s limo sport D.C.’s “Taxation Without Representation” license plates anytime soon? Maybe, maybe not.

During a meeting this afternoon with D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson and Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3), White House officials made no promises either way, leaving city legislators that earlier this week unanimously requested that Obama place the protest plate on his official limo with little to show for the effort.

At a press conference in the Wilson Building, Mendelson said that the conversation with Director of Intergovernmental Affairs David Agnew was productive, and that he and Cheh hadn’t walked in expecting a solid answer. Still, he defended the decision to pursue the matter, which was spurred by a petition placed on the White House website by D.C. Vote in December asking that Obama finally use the license plates. (The petition currently has 3,200 signatures on it.)

“A license plate does not give us a vote in Congress, but it puts the message out there,” he said. “This is about a fundamental right.”

D.C. started producing the license plates as a symbolic protest in 2000, and President Clinton placed them on his limo. President George W. Bush had them removed, and Obama—despite receiving the highest percentage of votes in the entire country from D.C. voters and saying he supports D.C. voting rights—hasn’t put them back, despite repeated requests.