Judging Freedom - Sec. Pete Buttigieg Road Safety Plan is a Scam

Episode Date: February 2, 2022

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg unveiled a road safety plan promising to 'promote speed safety cameras' across the country. This removes the possibility of due process. You cannot cross-examine a camera. #biggovernmentSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello there, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here with Judging Freedom. Today is Wednesday, February 2nd, 2022. It's about 2.45 in the afternoon here on the East Coast. And we just learned that the Department of Transportation, the Secretary of the Federal Department of Transportation, gee, where's that in of Transportation. Gee, where's that in the Constitution? Well, it's another story for another time where we even have a Federal Department of Transportation. The former Mayor of South Bend, Indiana. I have a soft spot in my heart for South Bend, Indiana because that's where I went to law school at the University of Notre Dame, technically not in South Bend, but adjacent to it. Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor,

now the Secretary of Transportation, wants to bribe the states, bribe the states into posting red light cameras. I have been a, you probably hate them, I hate these damn things, I have been a crusader against red light cameras since they first came out. In one of my books called Constitutional Chaos, What Happens When the Government Breaks Its Own Laws, I have a chapter in there about red light cameras. It's a scam. They are timed so that if you try to make it through the amber, the yellow light, it's impossible to do so. And sometimes the camera even catches you while the yellow light is on, but it records it as if the red light were on. It's a gimmick.

It's a scam for the camera companies to make money and for the governments that have bought these damn things to make money. In the city of New York, when Bill de Blasio became mayor, there were 1,200 red light cameras. He just left office after eight miserable years. There were 14,000 red light cameras. These cameras generate about $250 million, a quarter of a billion dollars to the city's coffers on innocent people being trapped by a machine,

machine that you can't cross-examine at the time of trial, a machine that the judges accept. This is not consistent with due process because due process under the Constitution requires that you be confronted with the evidence and the witnesses against you. If you can't cross-examine a machine, which obviously you can't, you're not being confronted with the evidence against you. Now, if a cop sees you going through a red light, it's probably the cop's duty to chase you down and give you a ticket and unless you have a very good excuse like my wife's about to deliver a baby and we got to get to the hospital or I'm bleeding to death I have to get to the ER anything short of that you're going to get the ticket that is the way the law should operate and even if you did get the ticket in an emergency, it would be up to the judge to decide whether you have the defense of necessity, a defense that allows you to break the law in order to save a human life.

But you can't do that with a red light camera because there's nobody to cross examine. It's a scam. Now, how will the feds do this? In New Jersey, these red light cameras are illegal. They're there, but they're there to record what happens if there's an accident. They are not there to issue you a ticket. They are disabled and prevented from issuing you a ticket. Thanks to former Governor Chris Christie, a longtime friend of mine. I know he's unpopular with a lot of people, but a longtime friend of mine who did the right thing and in the last two weeks of office signed an executive order, which is still good law. The

present governor, who's a jerk, could change the executive order if he wants, but he hasn't. So what will Pete Buttigieg do? He'll go to the states, even New Jersey, with a bucket of cash and say, here's money that you can use to hire more police, pave the highway, whatever law enforcement-related expenses you have. In return, you got to turn on those red light cameras. And if you don't have them, we'll buy them for you. What the heck business is it of the federal government? How fast you drive on a local road? Answer, none. What does the federal government have to do with speed limits? Answer, none. Is any of this in the constitution? Absolutely not. Judge Napolitano, judging freedom.