Legal advice*: pay the ticket.

If your state requires a front plate (state issued) as many do, you are not likely to get around it by fighting it in court. By not using the proper plate, you are asking to get stopped. Of course, if you think the law is stupid you have the right to go to court to argue your view, but it won't change the law and you'll pay a bigger fine for using the court's time.

I got stopped in a drunk driver checkpoint last year and with nothing else to charge me with, they issued me a ticket for not having my signature on the back of my driver's license. I just paid the fine of $55, as assinine as I thought it was. It just wasn't worth further aggravation.

There are NO points on a non-moving violation. It will NOT raise your insurance rates.

If your state does not require a front plate, they may allow a "decorative" plate (fight cancer or your favorite team) but not allow a numbered plate such as yours, which might be construed as misidentification.

New Jersey requires a front plate and I know of a couple people that use a "decorative" european type plate on their vehicle. Their local police may ignore it but at some point, a state police officer may take issue with it so I wouldn't use one since I don't like to give any of them a reason to stop me.

*Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and offer this information only as a reference to my own experience dealing with such issues. Your results may vary.