I am thanking thee....Just damn.
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Posted on 10/22/2003 1:20:00 PM PDT by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
EBENSBURG – A conservative Amish sect has won the right – at least for now – to use gray reflective tape on the back of their horse-drawn buggies to warn of a slow-moving vehicle.
A three-judge panel of the Superior Court, in a 2-1 decision, ruled that state law requiring bright orange triangles is unconstitutional as applied to the Swartzentruber Amish.
The conservative sect has families in the Ebensburg and Carrolltown areas of Cambria County.
Requiring them to use bright orange violates their religious freedom, the two state judges said in a 36-page opinion.
But District Attorney David Tulowitzki said yesterday he will appeal, citing the state´s overriding interest in public safety on the highway.
“The majority opinion basically said we didn´t prove the compelling issue of safety. We disagree because people are getting killed and injured as a result of not having the triangle on the buggies,” Tulowitzki said in an interview at his courthouse office.
But the ruling was hailed by Pittsburgh attorney Donna Doblick, representing the Amish, as keeping alive Pennsylvania´s founding principles dating to William Penn: “Not to tread lightly on individual´s rights, the right of religious freedom.”
Doblick, in a telephone interview from her Pittsburgh office, added, “There´s no evidence anywhere that the devices the Amish are using are less safe than (triangles).”
The state panel did not overturn the convictions outright. Rather, the case was remanded to county court for further consideration.
But Tulowitzki thinks the prosecution did prove its case and decided instead to appeal rather than go back before Judge Timothy Creany. He will either ask the full Superior Court – 15 judges – to reconsider the ruling or petition the state Supreme Court for review.
The Old Order Amish say the triangles offend their religious beliefs. They say the garish color violates their simple lifestyle and that displaying it would show they rely on it rather than on God for their safety.
Members have been using red lanterns and outlining the rear of their buggies with gray tape as safety precautions.
“The decision will be a welcome relief to our clients who wanted to get the same rights they have elsewhere,” Doblick said. She said that she would be driving later in the day to Cambria County to advise her clients – who do not have telephones – of the decision.
A number of other states where the members of the Swartzentruber Amish sect live grant an exemption to the requirement to display the triangles.
Members of the Pennsylvania sect – who moved here about six years ago from Ohio – have repeatedly been ticketed by state and local police for failing to display the triangle on their buggies.
The decision involves a joint appeal of 20 members of the community who received a total of 27 tickets. They initially were convicted by district justices and filed an appeal to county court.
In June 2002, Creany, saying that traveling safety is paramount on Pennsylvania roads, ruled against the Amish. He upheld the convictions and fined them $95 each, plus court costs.
The state judges determined the prosecution had failed to show that the religious objectors´ conduct poses a demonstrable threat of harm to the state´s interests.
The majority judges determined that, even though the state´s expert concluded the triangle is the most visible form of identification during daylight, prosecutors did not show that fewer accidents resulted among those using the emblem than among those who did not.
Without that comparative information, Creany had only a “scant basis on which to conclude that the emblem achieves a decrease in the rate of collision that the reflective tape cannot achieve,” the judges ruled.
“Because the evidence fails to substantiate a threat posed by the Swartzentrubers´ failure to display the SMV emblem, we cannot find that (state) interest (in highway safety) sufficiently compelling to justify intrusion on the Swartzentrubers´ sincerely held religious beliefs,” the majority said.
Judge Zoran Popovich, in a 10-page dissent, said he agreed with Creany that the state´s interest in safety is not met by permitting the Swartzentrubers to apply the gray reflective tape and a red lantern to their buggies.
The state´s expert concluded the tape is not as visible to motorists approaching from the rear of the buggies during daylight, when most of the buggies are on the roads, Popovich said.
God bless the Amish. But I really dislike reading stories about cars plowing into their buggies.
I am not at all fond of those liberal Amish sects.
Yeah, but in my mind the terms "gray" and "reflective" seem mutually exclusive.
Perhaps they meant "silver" instead of "gray".
Yep, that one is about the Swartzentrubers also.
Many people are confused by the orange triangles, thinking they are yield signs or even biohazard warnings.
Well I don't see where that makes much difference.
You're supposed to avoid plowing your car into those things as well.
And I just checked my sailing jacket--it's got white reflective tape on it. I've also seen reflective tape in yellow--that weird fire engine day-glo yellow.
Heck, I don't know.
AmishDude is the only one that I know that is.
Maybe he can answer your other questions.
In states like Texas where these triangles are required on all slow moving vehicles, everyone knows what they mean.
I am thanking thee....Just damn.
If you want on the new list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...
At times. They won a Supreme Court case protecting their right to remove children from schools after grade 8.
Yeah, all the different color reflective tapes that I've ever seen have always been "bright" versions of the color. That's why "gray" doesn't make sense to me: who ever heard of "bright gray"???
Clop, Clop, Clop, Clop, Clop
BANG!
Clop, Clop, Clop, Clop, Clop?
Ans. An Amish drive-by shooting.
No. Most simply put, Amish believe that institutions were either ordained by God or they were not; there is no middle road. The family and church were ordained by God; government was not.
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