Posted on 02/04/2014 7:17:57 AM PST by Second Amendment First
ST. LOUIS — The American Civil Liberties Union is hoping that a federal judge’s ruling Monday that temporarily barred a Missouri city from punishing drivers for using their headlights to warn others of speed traps will itself serve as a warning to other cities who try to do the same.
ACLU Legal Director Tony Rothert said Monday that it was the first federal court ruling on the issue anywhere in the country. “It is legal in Missouri to communicate in this manner,” he said, “and detaining, ticketing or arresting someone for the content of their speech is illegal. “
U.S. District Judge Henry Autrey’s preliminary injunction says that Michael J. Elli would likely prevail in a free speech lawsuit against Ellisville, Mo. Autrey’s ruling says that the officer “did not have reasonable suspicion to believe that Plaintiff had violated any law” and that it is not illegal to warn drivers “because a speed trap is ahead.”
The ACLU sued on behalf of Elli and other drivers last year, saying that drivers using their headlights to communicate about a speed trap — or another reason to proceed with caution — are protected by the First Amendment.
Rothert said that after Elli’s suit, they heard from drivers that other jurisdictions in Missouri and Illinois were also ticketing drivers for warning of speed traps, although the Post-Dispatch could not confirm current ordinances or enforcement actions with any of the named jurisdictions Monday afternoon.
(Excerpt) Read more at kansascity.com ...
Yep. Understood. Thanks.
De Soto
No, that's not right.
Grenada
Nope, not that either.
De Nada...
There we go. I knew 2nd grade Spanish would pay off sometime.
In my state, it isn’t illegal per se, but it is against the law to high-beam the oncoming traffic. That’s how they get ya.
Solution...make sure your lights are on low beam, and flick the switch a few times.
At night, unless you’re willing to turn your lights OFF for a split second (probably also illegal), you’re SOL.
There are several, actually. Trapster is the one that's been around the longest. It has a lot of interactivity, with other users providing near real-time updates to radar trap locations.
For those who would rather not use their phones for this purpose, some of the high-end radar detectors are able to link together using a similar network.
You can't flash to tell an oncoming car to dim their lights?
You’re not supposed to. Of course, I’ve never seen that one enforced except for once, when a guy flashed his high beams at an oncoming motorist that was highbeaming him. The motorist wouldn’t dim his lights, so he hit his high beams a second time. Motorist still wouldn’t dim his lights, so the guy just switched to high beam like the other motorist.
Then, the blue lights came on atop the other motorist’s car. Don’t remember if the guy was cited or not, but he was definitely warned not to do it in the future.
Actually, I read a little and it is illegal to have them on in my state within 500 feet of an oncoming car.
I do it anyway when someone high beams me, though, and in case of road hazard or emergency vehicles.
Years back we had a CD in the car on channel 19, so did a majority of travelers. If there was a cop car on the road, it was breaker break, bear at mile marker (what ever) If another car was traveling with you, you dialed to another channel for private conversations.
I thought apps like trapster were taken offline because police objected.
Also relying on other people is not as reliable as using the police’s own vehicle lojacks.
IIRC, the cops were trying to negate Trapster's effectiveness by making false speed trap reports. Trapster countered by adding a "confirmation" feature, allowing users to either confirm an active speed trap or report it as false or inactive. Works well enough to tick the cops off.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.