With a resolution limit of about 10 centimeters, intelligence satellites cannot read license plates or headlines, nor can they see golf balls. Imagery collection from some aerial systems (:within our atmosphere), which might readily achieve a resolution of three centimeters, could probably detect a golf ball detect but not reliably read the largest full-page headlines of a tabloid newspaper.
A resolution of about one centimeter would reliably read such unusually large headlines but would still fail to resolve license plates or normal headlines. Basically it's impossible because license plates are oriented vertically and there are other unpredictable atmospheric components that can not always be compensated for.
10 centimeter resolution
3 centimeter resolution
1 centimeter resolution
0.10 centimeter resolution
