Either the rear lamp or a separate lamp shall be so constructed and placed as to illuminate
with a white light the rear registration plate and render it clearly legible from a distance of fifty
feet to the rear. When the rear registration plate is illuminated by an electric lamp other than
the required rear lamp, the two lamps shall be turned on or off only by the same control switch
at all times when headlamps are lighted. This section does not apply to commercial vehicles
engaged exclusively in intrastate commerce that are dump trucks or that are used exclusively
for the movement of construction materials and equipment to and from construction projects.
[S13, §1571-m17; C24, 27, 31, 35, §5045; C39, §5033.08; C46, 50, 54, 58, 62, 66, 71, 73, 75,
77, 79, 81, §321.388]
85 Acts, ch 195, §38; 2015 Acts, ch 35, §1
Referred to in §321.1, 321.385A, 456A.12, 805.8A(3)(l)
For applicable scheduled fine, see §805.8A, subsection 3
\n
Notes of Decisions
State of Iowa v. Tommy Tyler, Jr., 830 N.W.2d 288 (Iowa 2013).
· cites it 12× “” None of our cases have interpreted section 321.388, but the court of appeals has held that “if the deputy had testified that he observed the plate from something that would approximate fifty feet, and it did not appear to be illuminated so as to be legible, we would likely…”
State of Iowa v. Kayla Haas, 930 N.W.2d 699 (Iowa 2019).
· cites it 8× “Iowa Code § 321.388 (2017). The 6 Iowa Code also requires reflective coating on license plates.”
State v. Reisetter, 747 N.W.2d 792 (Iowa Ct. App. 2008).
· cites it 24× “Iowa Code § 321.388 ; cf. Iowa Code § 321.”
State of Iowa v. Craig E. Harrison, 846 N.W.2d 362 (Iowa 2014).
· cites it 4× “” Iowa Code section 321.388 requires the illumination of “the rear registration plate [to] render it clearly legible from a distance of fifty feet.”
United States v. James Salkil, 10 F.4th 897 (8th Cir. 2021).
“See Iowa Code § 321.388 . Sergeant Paul ran Salkil’s name through a law enforcement database and learned that he had “recent involvement” with one Jamie Fulton “in which guns and drugs were located on a search warrant.”
State v. Anderson, 479 N.W.2d 330 (Iowa Ct. App. 1991).
· cites it 4× “Deputy Grabe testified at the suppression hearing that he stopped the car "to *333 ascertain the vehicle and its occupants mainly.”
State of Iowa v. Joseph Anthony Spencer, 919 N.W.2d 637 (Iowa Ct. App. 2018).
· cites it 12× “He argued that because one of his license plate lights did work and sufficiently illuminated his plate, the officers did not have a valid basis for the traffic stop based upon an alleged violation of Iowa Code section 321.388, the only proffered basis for the initial stop.”
State of Iowa v. Mitchell Ohland (Iowa Ct. App. 2020).
· cites it 10× “” Iowa Code § 321.388 . Ohland argues “no evidence on the legibility of the plate was ever offered.”
State of Iowa v. Daniel Jeffrey Gray (Iowa Ct. App. 2026).
· cites it 8× “388’s relevant language states: Either the rear lamp or a separate lamp shall be so constructed and placed as to illuminate with a white light the rear registration plate and render it clearly legible from a distance of fifty feet to the rear.”
State of Iowa v. Benjamin Lyon (Iowa Ct. App. 2014).
· cites it 8× “Iowa Code § 321.388 . Our court has required that, to satisfy the reasonable suspicion of an investigatory stop pursuant to this infraction, the officer cannot be too far outside the fifty-foot requirement at the point he makes the decision to stop the vehicle.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the
Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and
treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.