(Thanks the www.motorists.org for the link!)

http://heraldnet.com/article/20110822/BLOG48/708229997/-1/NEWS01

Camera lawsuit raises Constitutional questions
 

By Scott North

Monday, August 22, 2011 | 2:00 am

If you are closely following the debate over traffic-enforcement cameras in Snohomish County the attached transcript from a Bellingham courtroom last week is worth a read.

If you could care less about the camera issue, however, it is still worth spending a few minutes poring over Whatcom County Superior Court Judge Ira Uhrig's ruling.

Uhrig's intelligent and vigorous defense of the right to petition government is that good -- seriously -- regardless of how you feel about the cameras.

The transcript is from an Aug. 17 hearing during which Uhrig ruled http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20110817/NEWS01/708179824 that Bellingham voters will get to decide on an initiative that would restrict traffic-enforcement cameras there. Among other things, Uhrig held that Arizona-based American Traffic Solutions, Inc., didn't have standing to challenge the initiative.

ATS operates enforcement cameras in Lynnwood http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20110818/NEWS01/708199929. Monroe http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20110622/NEWS01/706229801 and Mukilteo http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20110807/NEWS01/708079940 are embroiled in legal controversies somewhat similar to Bellingham's.

A Snohomish County judge in September (no date has been set) likely will decide whether Monroe voters can weigh in on the city's enforcement-camera rules. Mukilteo, meanwhile, is awaiting the state Supreme Court's ruling on the legality http://templeofjustice.org/cases/2011/mukilteo-citizens-for-simple-government-v-city-of-mukilteo/ of an anti-camera measure voters approved in 2010.

The transcript comes courtesy of Tim Eyman, who has pressed the anti-cam initiatives around Washington.
 

Attachments:

File	Description
ATS VS Bellingham citizens.pdf

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