A penny for your thoughts...
Sometimes things just have a way of working out.
Last week THIS STORY came out about a judge in the Hagerstown Town Court (who just happens to be my bride of 34 years), and a man who wanted to pay his seat belt ticket fine with 2500 loose pennies. The defendent was upset about the law that requires adults to wear a seat belt. And rightfully so. Wearing a seat belt belongs in the "Good Idea, Bad Law" category. Seat belt laws create and address another victimless crime, something Libertarians would like to see a lot less of.
So the defendant, Neil Brooks, certainly had the sympathy of court. And Judge Bell explained just that, along with pointing out that once a higher court upholds a law as Constitutional, it is not within the authority of a town court to overturn that ruling, and suggesting that perhaps Mr. Brooks objections to the law should be voiced to a wider audience, including the legislators that made the law in the first place.
And the sympathetic court could have accepted the pennies, counted them and carried them to the bank, and Mr. Brooks could have went on his way, with himself, the court clerk, and the Judge being the only people to hear his protest.
After the Judge asked him to reconsider his payment plan, Mr. Brooks complaint about a over-reaching law ended up in SEVERAL NEWS OUTLETS across the state.
I don't know if she planned it that way or not.
I do know that for the last 34 years things have just had a way of working out.
Last week THIS STORY came out about a judge in the Hagerstown Town Court (who just happens to be my bride of 34 years), and a man who wanted to pay his seat belt ticket fine with 2500 loose pennies. The defendent was upset about the law that requires adults to wear a seat belt. And rightfully so. Wearing a seat belt belongs in the "Good Idea, Bad Law" category. Seat belt laws create and address another victimless crime, something Libertarians would like to see a lot less of.
So the defendant, Neil Brooks, certainly had the sympathy of court. And Judge Bell explained just that, along with pointing out that once a higher court upholds a law as Constitutional, it is not within the authority of a town court to overturn that ruling, and suggesting that perhaps Mr. Brooks objections to the law should be voiced to a wider audience, including the legislators that made the law in the first place.
And the sympathetic court could have accepted the pennies, counted them and carried them to the bank, and Mr. Brooks could have went on his way, with himself, the court clerk, and the Judge being the only people to hear his protest.
After the Judge asked him to reconsider his payment plan, Mr. Brooks complaint about a over-reaching law ended up in SEVERAL NEWS OUTLETS across the state.
I don't know if she planned it that way or not.
I do know that for the last 34 years things have just had a way of working out.
Labels: Judge Susan Bell
posted by Rex Bell at 6:36 PM
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