Parking only for in-state tagged vehicles?

On Sep 21, 6:34 am, "johnmoli...@yahoo.com" <johnmoli...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> I received a parking citation today while at a family member's house.
> I was parked in front of their house on the street. The fine is $75.
> On the ticket, the description reads "no current registation
> displayed" and has the corresponding ordinance. I couldn't understand
> this, since my car is registered and has valid license plates.
>
> I got a copy of the town ordinance and it reads "Failure to diplay a
> current registration or license plate on vehicle issued by the Florida
> Dept. of Motor Vehicles".

Just when you think you've heard everything, a bonehead ordinance like this comes along with a numbskull cop interpreting it.   What were they thinking?   That Florida doesn't want visitors?

> I'm kind of confused. I am a visitor from another state. Although my
> car registration is valid, the license plates are not from Florida. I
> thought I had a slam dunk case but now I'm not so sure.

For $75, and no moving violation points on your record, you probably don't want to bother hiring a lawyer to contest this for you just to prove a point.   But if you're still in town when your trial date would come up, this is the sort of thing you most certainly may want to show up in court and contest by yourself.   If the judge has any sense he will throw it out and tell the cops what they really should interpret the ordinance to mean.   If you lose, then the most you will lose is $75.   Or, you could hire a lawyer to make fancy arguments for you.  

> If you take
> the ordinance on its face value, it basically means that anyone
> visiting from another state with non-Florida license plates can be
> cited when they park their car on a town street!

As you can tell the judge, even without benefit of legal research.  

Sometimes a "reductio ad absurdum" argument is the most effective (showing that if you take a statement literally, it leads to absurd results).

The law is supposed to be interpreted reasonably, to make sense.   And it certainly is not supposed to be interpreted in a way that will do nothing but harm the state's primary industry, tourism, by scaring away all the tourists.

> Are there any state or federal statutes that nullify this ordinance?

Maybe the "full faith and credit clause" of the constitution, requiring the states to recognize and give effect to other states' official actions (such as MVA registration); the "commerce clause" pre-emption of state restrictions on freedom to travel from state to state, and the common law rule against twisted, unnatural interpretations of statutes and ordinances that has nothing to do with their primary, salutary purpose of ensuring that unlicensed, unregistered vehicles not be operated or parked on the public street?

> It seems rediculous to me.

Me too.   Another crazy cop story (see the "fleeing and eluding" post today on MLM -- was that one in FL too?   What are they putting in the water?)

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Mike Jacobs
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