South Carolina Military and Valor License Plates

Article 149 of Chapter 3, Title 56, created by 2021 Act No. 38 effective May 6, 2022 and amended by 2022 Act No. 216 and 2024 Act No. 178, replaced every separate veteran plate statute South Carolina had. What it produced is a six-tier scheme in which the tier decides the money and the parking, so it is worth knowing which tier a plate is in before applying. Every tier shares three rules. The qualifying service member or veteran must be one of the registrants of the vehicle. No more than three plates per award type. The plate is issued or revalidated for a biennial period expiring twenty-four months from the month of issue. Tier one, Section 56-3-14910, valorous awards. Medal of Honor for the Army, Navy and Air Force; Distinguished Service Cross for the Army, Navy and Air Force; South Carolina Medal of Valor; Silver Star; Bronze Star with valor; Soldier's Medal; and, added by 2024 Act No. 178, the Navy and Marine Corps Medal. Exempt from the registration fee. Carries the metered parking exemption. Tier two, Section 56-3-14920, distinguished service awards. Distinguished Service Medal for the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard; Distinguished Flying Cross; Legion of Merit; and the Palmetto Cross. Exempt from the registration fee. Carries the metered parking exemption. Tier three, Section 56-3-14930, exemplary service awards. Gold Star Family; Gold Star Family Personalized; Prisoner of War, available to the award recipient and spouse; Purple Heart; and Purple Heart Wheelchair. Exempt from the registration fee. Carries the metered parking exemption. Gold Star Family is available to "immediate family members (spouse, parent, children, or siblings)", which is drawn wider than most states and includes siblings. Tier four, Section 56-3-14940, service-connected disability. Free of the registration fee but no metered parking exemption in Article 149. Covered in its own entry, including the older Section 56-5-2585, which exempts a disabled veteran or Purple Heart plate from municipal parking meter fees until 2026 Act No. 115 repeals it on October 6, 2026. The Purple Heart plate loses nothing by that repeal, because Section 56-3-14930(D) covers it independently. Tier five, Section 56-3-14950, campaign medals. World War II Veteran; Pearl Harbor Survivor; Normandy Invasion Survivor; Korean War; Vietnam War; Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm; Operation Iraqi Freedom; Operation Enduring Freedom. These are "subject to the regular motor vehicle registration fee", with one exception written into the same sentence: "except for Korean War license plates pursuant to subsection (A)(4)". The Korean War plate is the only campaign plate that is free. No additional specialty plate fee applies to any of them, and none carries metered parking. 2026 Act No. 125 (S. 585), signed May 15, 2026, adds a ninth campaign plate, Operation Inherent Resolve, on the same fee terms. Tier six, Sections 56-3-14960 and 56-3-14970, meritorious service and military service. Air Medal, Bronze Star for service and the Meritorious Service Medal in the first; in the second, Veteran and Female Veteran with wheelchair variants, Combat-Related Disabled Veteran, each branch including US Space Force added by 2022 Act No. 216, the Army and Air National Guard and National Guard Retired, each reserve component, US Armed Forces Retired and State Guard. Regular registration fee, no additional specialty fee, no metered parking. 2026 Act No. 125 adds a twentieth designation to Section 56-3-14970(A), Armed Forces Surviving Spouse, "available to the surviving spouse of a military veteran", which unlike the transfer right in Section 56-3-14990 needs no award and no Guard service. Both new plates take effect six months after the Department of Motor Vehicles approves the design, under sections 4.B and 5.B of the act, so the published code does not show them and the department is the only source for whether they can be ordered yet. Section 56-3-14980 is different in kind. It covers plates showing support for military-related private organisations, which any member of the public may buy: Blue Star Family, Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, American Veterans, Marine Corps League, Chief Petty Officer and Support Our Troops. These pay both the regular registration fee and a special plate fee set by the sponsoring organisation, and unlike every other section in the article they are subject to Section 56-3-8100, which is the minimum-orders and deposit regime for specialty plates. A plate in this section can be discontinued for want of orders; the veteran plates in the other sections cannot. The metered parking exemption, where it applies, is worded identically in all three sections and carries two limits. It reaches "metered or timed parking places" only, and it "has no application to areas or during times in which the stopping, parking, or standing of all vehicles is prohibited or which are reserved for special types of vehicles." And it is conditional on display: the vehicle must display the distinguishing plate. Documentation across the article is a DD-214, an NGB Form 22, or official orders demonstrating the award or the campaign participation. Section 56-3-14970(C) adds, for a branch or veteran designation plate, that the application must also meet the specifications in Section 56-1-140(B)(1) to (3), which is the driver's licence veteran designation document list. Section 56-3-14990 handles the surviving spouse and was widened in 2024. On the death of an award recipient, a surviving spouse may apply for, or apply to transfer, a plate issued under Section 56-3-14910, 56-3-14920 or 56-3-14930(A)(3), which is the Prisoner of War plate. 2024 Act No. 178 added subsection (B): on the death of a National Guard member, a surviving spouse may apply for or transfer a National Guard Army, National Guard Air or National Guard Retired plate. In both cases "the surviving spouse must turn the plate into the department when the surviving spouse is no longer eligible for surviving spouse military benefits", which ties the plate's life to the underlying survivor entitlement rather than to remarriage as such. Note what Section 56-3-14990 does not reach: the Purple Heart plate at Section 56-3-14930(A)(4). The section names only subitem (A)(3), the Prisoner of War plate, out of that tier. A Purple Heart recipient's surviving spouse has no transfer right in the text, while a former prisoner of war's does.