re: Man turns camera ticket into constitutional trial of the century

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I've long held that camera tickets are CLEARLY unconstitutional and if someone/enough people took the time and money to fight it all the way, the high courts would agree.

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I agree. It is absolutely ridiculous for local government to argue that this is anywhere close to legal and constitutional. They know it, too. Some places (Boston, if I recall) have started slapping a fee on people who want to contest the tickets. The fee is more than the ticket, so even if you win your challenge, you still end up paying more than you would have if you just paid the ticket (not counting insurance premium hikes, points on your license, etc.). Obviously, this is just an attempt to discourage people from challenging a practice that is patently unconstitutional.

That said, on the list of unconstitutional things government gets away with, this is pretty low. Civil forfeiture is orders of magnitude worse. Refusing to provide effective assistance of counsel to criminal defendants and imposing ridiculous limits on discovery even for those who do get effective representation are also worse than traffic cameras, in my view.