C.F.R. Defense (Code of Federal Regulations, Title 23, Section 603)

This defense was more applicable pre-2003 when the Federal government changed the MUTCD to add the wording "statutory speed limit".  Basically if the posted speed limit is less than the state of Ohio's statutory speed limit, you would request a dismissal if the prosecutor fails to provide a traffic engineering survey supporting the lower speed limit as stated below.

Background:  Every Community and State that accepts one cent of Federal Highway or Road funds is included. As part of the acceptance of these funds they make themselves subject to the rules and regulations contained in the C.F.R. Code of Federal Regulations. As such every police officer, when he issues a ticket is doing so under color of federal law. The collection, trial and enforcement is local in nature. The speed limit they enforce is not. (exempt are private roads)

To deal with 23 C.F.R> another Federal agency was set up called MUTCD (Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices). The section we are concerned with it Title 23

As to the exact wording in the C.F.R. and MUTCD, forget it. It is so complicated and requires you to know at least 200 sections plus 1,000 different legislative readings to make sense of it. Here you have to trust me. This is real. The two main case laws presented are the only two times this has gone to appeals in any State. Both interpret the law the same way. To be convicted the prosecution must show that the stretch of road you were on had the correct speed limit. To do that they have to present a document called a Traffic Engineering Survey.

What the law says is that for a speed to be enforceable it must be realistic and the fastest safe speed based on a 85 percentile. Don't bother trying to figure it out. To figure out what the speed should be a Traffic Engineering Survey is required. This survey sets the speed limit. This survey must be less then five years old for the posted speed to be enforceable.

I will be presenting cases that would support the CFR defense in future postings.  I will also be presenting my view on using the "Home Rule" defense I'm developing with cases to support it from the red light and speed cameras.  It would be another way to prove the lower posted speed limit is not legal, but using the Ohio Constitution as your authority versus the Ohio administrative code (ORC) in conjunction with the Federal administrative code (CFR).