Federal appellate court strikes down California 30 day vehicle impound law (sale, 2014)

[2sleepy]

"Law enforcement must provide a valid reason to hold people's vehicles and cannot automatically impound them for a set period, a federal appeals court said Wednesday. The unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a California law that requires police to hold impounded vehicles for 30 days. Judge Alex Kozinski, writing for the panel, said the law violates the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable seizures. "A seizure is justified under the Fourth Amendment only to the extent that the government's justification holds force," he said. "Thereafter, the government must cease the seizure or secure a new justification."
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-sta...ay-impound-law

This was such a crappy law. If you loaned your car to a friend and they got pulled over for driving on a suspended license they would impound your car for 30 days, and it didn't make a bit of difference if you didn't know their license was suspended. It sure gave tow yard owners a nice run for the past 20 or 30 years, it made them millions of dollars and gave them a nice inventory of cars they could sell to 'recover' the impound fees of $40-$60 a day.

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Well, before this year illegals would have loved this. Now, not so much.

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by 1AngryTaxPayer

Well, before this year illegals would have loved this. Now, not so much.

Before this year, what are you talking about? If you are referring to AB60 licenses those were first issued 2 years and 5 months ago

[V8 Vega]

Now there will be a lot of junk, non running cars taking up residential parking spots and degrading your neighborhood.

[cb73]

First, there's long been a provision that if the owner had a valid license, he could ask for a hearing and only pay 3 days, and get his car back. I don't know if it was universally honored, though.

Second, I'd long heard that the police were not enforcing this law because it was unfair to the illegals. Did that change? Or maybe it was only in certain jurisdictions that it wasn't being enforced.

I always thought there must be a tow company lobbyist behind this--they stood to make a fortune.

[citizensadvocate]

Finally there are signs of justice and recourse against all these bad laws in CA and else where. I wish more bad California laws get struck down. all these Do gooders interest groups are causing more harm than good just to make a quota of new legislation each year. All made without much thought or consideration of unintended consequences. I know this is not solely a California phenomenon and other states and countries also suffering from similar issues though CA seems to be among the places that pass more and have a larger quota an year and a track record to pass meddling legislation.
I heard that many cars had been wrongfully impounded as in California its officially legal to drive with a foreign or out of state license as long as a person remains a non resident or one who's domicile is not in CA. So illegal immigrants as long as they don't meet the definition of a CA resident, which most prima facie evidence requires legal status could drive with licenses from Mexico or their home country indefinitely. Given their driving privilege in CA has not been suspended due to crime or DUI there is no excuse for the impoundment, yet it happens all too often in practice.

Now I just hope that California's SB270 bag ban also gets struck down soon. As one can ask when is the last time in history in CA and elsewhere where the government required a fee to be charged to end users but pocketed by the retailers rather than to the government. This seem to violate many principles such as the Sherman anti trust act and the governments role. And in reality is that its making garbage issues much worse not better.
This engineer in Ventura had complied many government and scientific websites regarding the truth of the movement around CA and other leftist cities around the country/world.
Please feel free to look why this movement is really harming the state big time.
https://fighttheplasticbagban.files....revision_3.pdf
https://fighttheplasticbagban.files....e-bag-bans.pdf

Though this shows the fact that one should never give up in standing up for whats right. A true hero is the plantiff who hanged in there throughout the lawsuit despite hardships.

[Matadora]

Originally Posted by V8 Vega

Now there will be a lot of junk, non running cars taking up residential parking spots and degrading your neighborhood.

Take a good look around...it's already occurring.

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by cb73

First, there's long been a provision that if the owner had a valid license, he could ask for a hearing and only pay 3 days, and get his car back. I don't know if it was universally honored, though.

Second, I'd long heard that the police were not enforcing this law because it was unfair to the illegals. Did that change? Or maybe it was only in certain jurisdictions that it wasn't being enforced.

I always thought there must be a tow company lobbyist behind this--they stood to make a fortune.

They have to have the post storage hearing if you demand one, but the outcome is at the discretion of the hearing officer, usually a cop assigned to Traffic. Some agencies rarely do 30 day impounds, others do it every chance they get. And it doesn't matter if the owner has a license, what matters is if the driver has a valid license.

A friend of mine lives in Solano County and she allowed her niece to use her car. There is no way in the world she would have loaned her the car if she had any idea that her niece's license was suspended. She got pulled over, they towed the car and did a 30 day impound on it. When my friend went to the Police Station to get her car back she was told she had to make a formal request for a hearing, they have two 'court days' after you request the hearing to hold one, so since she asked on Friday evening they made her wait until the following Wednesday to have the hearing at which time the hearing officer said "sorry I think you knew your relative's license was suspended' and walked away from her. So they kept the car in impound for the entire 30 days. It cost her $1200 in impound fees, a $250 tow fee, a $300 police release and a $60 lien sale fee. And she was without her car for a month. Her niece eventually repaid her but seriously what is the point of doing something like that?

In a Police Dept where one of my friends worked, some cops would do 30 day impounds on cars that they wanted, they knew that most people won't be able to pay to get their car back so the tow yard will do a lien sale on it, and when the tow yard got title to the car they would sell it to the cop for a few hundred dollars. It works out real well for the tow yard and encourages some less than ethical officers to tow cars so that they can personally profit on someone else's misery.

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by 2sleepy

Before this year, what are you talking about? If you are referring to AB60 licenses those were first issued 2 years and 5 months ago

Not referring to AB60. Think Federal.

[expatCA]

Originally Posted by citizensadvocate

Finally there are signs of justice and recourse against all these bad laws in CA and else where. I wish more bad California laws get struck down. all these Do gooders interest groups are causing more harm than good just to make a quota of new legislation each year. All made without much thought or consideration of unintended consequences. I know this is not solely a California phenomenon and other states and countries also suffering from similar issues though CA seems to be among the places that pass more and have a larger quota an year and a track record to pass meddling legislation.
I heard that many cars had been wrongfully impounded as in California its officially legal to drive with a foreign or out of state license as long as a person remains a non resident or one who's domicile is not in CA. So illegal immigrants as long as they don't meet the definition of a CA resident, which most prima facie evidence requires legal status could drive with licenses from Mexico or their home country indefinitely. Given their driving privilege in CA has not been suspended due to crime or DUI there is no excuse for the impoundment, yet it happens all too often in practice.

Now I just hope that California's SB270 bag ban also gets struck down soon. As one can ask when is the last time in history in CA and elsewhere where the government required a fee to be charged to end users but pocketed by the retailers rather than to the government. This seem to violate many principles such as the Sherman anti trust act and the governments role. And in reality is that its making garbage issues much worse not better.
This engineer in Ventura had complied many government and scientific websites regarding the truth of the movement around CA and other leftist cities around the country/world.
Please feel free to look why this movement is really harming the state big time.
https://fighttheplasticbagban.files....revision_3.pdf
https://fighttheplasticbagban.files....e-bag-bans.pdf

Though this shows the fact that one should never give up in standing up for whats right. A true hero is the plantiff who hanged in there throughout the lawsuit despite hardships.

In other words "feel good" do bad.