Article from: www.thenewspaper.com/news/15/1500.asp

12/16/2006

Minnesota Supreme Court to Hear Camera Case
The Minnesota Supreme Court will hear the case that shut down the Minneapolis red light camera program.

Minnesota's highest court agreed on Thursday to decide the fate of red light cameras in the state. The Minnesota Supreme Court next year will hear an appeal to a pair of rulings that struck down the photo ticket program operated by the city of Minneapolis.

On September 22, the state Court of Appeals upheld a March decision in Hennepin County District Court that found the city's program illegal (read ruling). The judges stated that the legislature had not approved photo enforcement and that cities do not have the authority to install systems on their own.

"Minnesota law does not permit individual cities to unilaterally regulate traffic in a way that would create a checkerboard of liability across the state," the appeals court ruled.

Minneapolis was able to collect in $2 million in revenue in the five months before the court pulled the plug on the program. If the city wins its appeal, it hopes to expand the program to include speed cameras.

Source: Minneapolis photo-cop case headed to state Supreme Court (Minneapolis Star-Tribune (MN), 12/14/2006)

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