MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) – The Alabama Supreme Court has upheld Montgomery’s red light camera law.
Justices ruled Friday 6-1 in favor of the city and against motorist Richard Glass who challenged the ordinance, and related state act, as unconstitutional under the Alabama Constitution.
The 2007 ordinance established a traffic-light camera system and instituted civil penalties for traffic-light violations. The Alabama Legislature in 2008 enacted a related local act called the “Montgomery Red Light Safety Act.”
Glass challenged the constitutionality of the law on several grounds, including arguing it was a duplication of state law and not allowed under the state constitution. He also argued that it violated a section of the Alabama Constitution that says the Legislature can not pass a special local law “fixing the punishment of crime.”
Associate Justice Sarah Stewart wrote that the city law did not try to supersede general state traffic laws and also met a “demonstrated local needs” requirement. The majority opinion also noted that the red light camera law “does not impermissibly fix punishment for a crime by assessing a civil penalty for a civil violation.”