In 1973, as fewer and fewer of us are even old enough to remember, the federal government responded to the Arab oil embargo (itself imposed because of the U.S.’ support for Israel during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War) by decreeing that, to save a few barrels of oil here and there, the national speed limit on the highway would henceforth be 55 mile-per-hour. The government never would have done that just to save a few lives, of course. But that was an unintended consequence of the law — highway deaths dropped dramatically for the first time in years.
Now, Congress does not actually have authority to set state speed limits. But it has something much more powerful: federal money. Any state that refused to lower its maximum speed limit would have lost a portion of its federal highway money. So all of the state legislatures dutifully lined up at the federal trough by dropping their maximum speed limits to 55. (In Citizen’s Band (CB) radio slang, this became known to long-haul truckers, who spend more time on the road than anyone else, as “the double nickel.”)
Montana and a few of the other large western states, however, were still unhappy about this federal intrusion into local affairs. So they fought back with a “low impact” statute. In Montana, Wyoming, and a few other places, the law was written so that a person was not really cited for speeding, but for “wasting fossil fuel.” Montana also lowered the fine for speeding to a whopping $5 — a strong incentive not to speed, as of course anyone would agree. But these states could show Congress they were “enforcing” the 55 MPH speed limit to retain their full share of federal money.
After 1994, when the Republican Party took control of Congress for the first time since the 1950s, Congress once again allowed the states to set their own speed limits, beginning in 1995. Montana was the only state that simply got rid of daytime speed limits. Well, not entirely. Its law did still say that drivers had to travel at a rate of speed “no greater than is reasonable and proper under the conditions existing at the point of operation.” This is referred to as the “basic speed law” — you can’t go faster than it’s safe for the road, weather, and other conditions.
In March, 1996, a fellow named Rudy Stanko was charged with going an unreasonable and imprudent 85 miles per hour on a clear, dry stretch of highway at about 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning. He challenged his conviction on the ground that the statute was “unconstitutionally vague” — that is, the Montana law did not give him fair notice when he was committing a violation.
It took a couple of years, but his case worked its way up the court ladder, and on Christmas Eve, 1998, the Montana Supreme Court decided that the “reasonable and proper” language was indeed unconstitutionally vague — it did not give Stanko (or anyone else) fair notice when they were violating the law. So the court struck it down, meaning that, for the time being, there were no speed limits on Montana highways.
Well, even the Montana Legislature wouldn’t tolerate that, so it enacted a law setting a maximum of 75 miles per hour. The new law took effect around Memorial Day, 1999 — just in time for the summer driving season.
There is an enormous irony about Mr. Stanko’s valiant effort. For one thing, on the same day it struck down the speed law, the Montana Supreme Court decided another case involving Stanko. In that case, he was charged with the misdemeanor violation of reckless driving for driving between 117 and 121 miles per hour with other vehicles around. He challenged that law on vagueness grounds too, but the court rejected that challenge.
So let’s get this straight. “Reasonable and proper” is too vague a term for a person of average intelligence to understand, but “reckless” driving is perfectly understandable. Seems perfectly consistent, doesn’t it?
And in Montana, remember, speeding is a whopping $5 fine. It’s also one of the only states where you pay your fine to the police officer right there on the side of the road. (They have that system in some other places, like Chicago — but it’s not referred to there as “paying your fine.”)
So, because Mr. Stanko just had to challenge his onerous $5.00 fine, Montana went from being a place where, most of the time, there was no set speed limit to a place where it’s 75 all of the time.
Thanks a lot, Mr. Stanko.
Frank Zotter, Jr. is a Ukiah attorney.
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