Thread: my 2 cents!!

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. . . he told me he didn't care where it was registered at, if i was planning on driving that car in VA i had to abide by the VA laws . . .

lt1,

Typical cop talk. He's probably wrong, but doing something about it takes a lawyer and a lot 'o bucks. The cops in Council Bluffis Iowa tried that line on Omaha cars that had windows tinted too dark for Iowa laws. They handed out a bunch of tickets using that cop's same line - at least until someone with a few $$$ and a lawyer for a friend contested it.

They used the right to interstate commerce, meaning the right to freely travel from state to state (nothing to do with buying or selling anything.) The courts found that it was unreasonable to issue tickets because of the variety of laws across the nation would unduly restrict the ability of people to go from state to state, and people coming from Ohio certainly couldn't scrape their tint off just to get through good ol' I-o-way.

Here's a quote from a Pennsylvania site referring to the Constitutional right of interstate commerce:

"The Department recognizes the Constitutional limitations in enforcing these provisions to vehicles registered out-of-state. In that regard, it has been the Department's practice to counsel law enforcement officials not to enforce these window tint provisions upon individual vehicle owners operating registered out-of-state vehicles."

What he means is that it would be illegal for them to restrict Interstate Commerce by threatening or citing legal vehicle from other States that meet all Federal and PA requirements.

Unfortunately, in cases like this, the cop's right until proven wrong in court.