Proposed Texas Law - Mandatory vehicle RFID

A proposed bill in the Texas Legislature would make it mandatory for all vehicle inspection stickers to have an RFID chip installed. (Some of you may have read the link to this on the ATS News board, but this is a better place for discussion.)

Link to the text of the bill: www.capitol.state.tx.us...

Aside from the normal issues that arise about tracking all vehicles with RFID, the bill contains several even more distressing provisions. It creates a computer system that tracks whether a vehicle is covered by insurance. (Not much of a problem there, since the state already requires proof of insurance to register the car.) Then, the proposed law links the computer system to the RFID chips, and if a sensor detects that a vehicle is driven without insurance, the owner gets sent a $250 fine.

Don't agree with the fine, or that you were driving the car? You can request a hearing. But, the law specifically says that the person requesting the hearing has the burden of proof. (So, you have to prove you are innocent, instead of the other way around.) Instead of using the standard of Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, it's a preponderance of the evidence standard (i.e. more likely than not).

The owner is not allowed to bring up the fact that he or she wasn't driving the car. In fact, it looks like the text of the bill would not even allow you to point out that the car had been stolen. No right to a jury trial. Failure to pay the fine results in a drivers' license suspension.

The law calls the fine a "civil penalty" to get around those meddling Constitutional Rights lawyers.

I'm selling my truck and buying a donkey cart. (Although it will probably have to come with one of the black boxes that are being mandated by the federal government.)