Does this seem fair to you?

[NightWatcher]

Regarding window tint on cars and trucks. Cars are held to a different legal restriction than are Multi-person vehicles (trucks, minivans, suv's). Can Equal Protection be extended to the operators of cars as well as SUV's?

Here's Georgia's window tint law:

Front and rear side windows and the rear windshield may be tinted so that 32% of the light hitting the window passes through the window and the aftermarket film.

Here's what 30% looks like.


The other half of the law is that trucks, vans, SUV's and other "Multi-person vehicles" are exempt from the restrictions on the tint for the back seats, back sides, and rear window.


This is completely legal


I understand the safety issues behind the law. Cops want to be able to see who's in the vehicles so they dont walk into a face full of shotgun blast. Why is it legal for a truck, suv, minivan, or other multi-person vehicle to have dark tint on the back, but not for a car? Hypothetically you could fit a whole lot more gunmen in the back of an SUV than a Toyota Corolla.

For the record, here's my car:



I need window tint for my job where I conduct mobile and stationary surveillance from my vehicle. I have gotten 3 tickets for window tint violations and had to remove the tint twice only to reapply it.

[merh]

1. You have a few choices

You can challenge the law the next time you are ticketed.

You can work to get the law corrected by lobbying your legislators (get the state's PI's and bondsmen to join, I'm sure they would).

You can just buy the vehicle that is allowed the darker tint.

[NightWatcher]

2. I'm dealing with it. I pay the fine. I cant afford a new car and the PI association is flacid

on the upside, I am moving to Florida soon which allows 15% on the back and rear sides for cars (and anything for MPV's), but it is never enforced.

I just wonder if it's fair to apply different standards to different vehicles with no apparent logic.

[angstlessk]

4. what is that saying? Fair is where one goes to show off cows? or is that pigs???

in any event...NOTHING IS FAIR...but you are correct it is discrimination based on the price of the vehicle..and if you can afford to...challenge the law!

[david13]

3. The great Hindu truth, that you must learn at a young age, is

that life is not fair.
dc

[ejpoeta]

5. i know that in NY.... the driver window, passenger window and the windshield cannot have

tinting. I have seen people driving around with that dark tint on the front windows, but it's not legal. I was riding with a friend several years ago and she had a dark tint just at the top of her windshield!! above her line of sight. and i think she had slight tinting on the driver and passenger window. this was FACTORY tinting as well. well, she got pulled over and got a ticket for the tint being like that. unless they have changed it since then, then there are a lot of people driving around with illegal tinting on their windows. i don't know what the rules are anywhere else.

[Jeep789]

6. No, not fair

But if they make it fair, the tint law would apply to all vehicles. I don't see how that would help you.

[noamnety]

7. On the one hand, the law is not fair.

On the other hand, I'm not so willing to expend energy ensuring that it's easier for private citizens to conduct surveillance on each other. :)

[Deja Q]

8. One reason for laws is to try to make things fair(er)

[noamnety]

13. Yes, and my solution would be

to stop allowing such dark tinting on the SUVs.

That wouldn't improve the OP's ability to spy on people, but it would solve their concern that they were being treated unfairly.

[customerserviceguy]

9. I've often thought that the #1 reason people have extra dark tint

on their car windows is that they have something to hide. Your statements above have not changed my mind.

Leaving that aside for a minute, there really doesn't seem to be a lot of rational reasons for a difference between a regular passenger automobile and a bigger vehicle, other than the fact that bigger vehicles are less dependent on seeing out side windows, and more dependent on using bigger mirrors. If you're in a Hummer, you're not going to see a Geo Metro through the back passenger window anyway, you gotta use your mirrors to see the smaller traffic.

[Jeep789]

10. But you have to see through your window to see the mirrors. nt

[customerserviceguy]

12. That's why it's only the back seats, back sides, and back window

that are allowed to have the dark tint.

I'm not defending it, I'm just trying to develop the 'logic' for it.

[BlooInBloo]

11. This could possibly be The World's Least Important Issue.

[NightWatcher]

14. yet you felt the need to comment, thanks for enriching the conversation

I'm sorry I didnt have something to say about Susan Boyle to make it more important