Ahead of the curve
Many license plate frames illegal: Court ruling gives police power to stop cars with partially obscured plates (Chuck Lindell, Austin American-Statesman)
Texans who unintentionally cover even a small portion of their car's license plate can be stopped by police, ticketed and perhaps arrested for the offense, the state's highest criminal court ruled Wednesday.
The 8-1 decision left three Court of Criminal Appeals judges holding their noses — proclaiming the statute "uncommonly bad," but acknowledging that the letter of the law prohibits drivers from encasing their license plate in a frame that obscures the state name, state nickname or even portions of the artwork.
Unfortunately, the law as written unintentionally endangers civil liberties, Judge Cathy Cochran wrote in an opinion that, while siding with the majority, raises concerns about the ruling's impact.
"It is a 'gotcha' law because it allows the police to arbitrarily stop, ticket, arrest and search any person who is driving a car whose license plate frame covers up any portion of that plate's design," Cochran wrote in an opinion joined by Judges Tom Price and Cheryl Johnson. "Look around you — the vast majority of drivers on Texas roads and highways can be stopped and arrested at any given moment."
Still, Cochran wrote, under a law revised in 2003, "it is a crime . . . if that frame obscures even the tiniest bit of the doo-dad design details of the standard-issue Texas license plate."
I hate the subheadline for this story, because it's not the court that bestowed this power on police, but our state legislature.
In any case, readers of this little blog knew a long time ago that it would be a wise idea to remove their license plate brackets.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/16/07 10:34 | Texas | Technorati
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Tommy Williams (Woodlands) has filed Senate Bill 369 and Bill Callegari (Katy) has filed an identical House Bill 348.
Both will modify the 2003 law to clarify it and allow license plate frames and other decorations as long as all of the license number and at least half the issuing state is visible.
The law allows exceptions to even that for installation of a transponder (like what Harris County Toll Road Authority uses on certain vehicles that have metal in the windshield that affects the EZTag Transponders). It also continues to ban anything that would render the main numbers on the plate unreadable on camera (such as covers and sprays).
The House version is being considered in a committee meeting this week, so we'll have to watch and see if it or the Senate counterpart makes it to the floor.
http://www.capitol.state.tx...
Posted by Michael W. Jones @ 23:06 on 02/16/07
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