![the last bastion 1984 the last bastion 1984](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_2SaWbr2Zks/maxresdefault.jpg)
Montana reverts to its original law, which states that drivers shall operate vehicles “. President Clinton signs the National Highway System Designation Act of 1995 into law, repealing Nixon’s speed limit and eliminating the highway funding penalty. 1987Ĭongress allows states to raise the speed limit to 65 mph on rural interstate highways. Montana meets the letter of the law by fining violators $5 for “an unnecessary waste of a natural resource.” But, in spirit, Montana is telling the feds to shove it. It effectively enacts a 55-mph national speed limit by threatening to kill funding for highways to states not in compliance. President Richard Nixon signs the Emergency Energy Highway Conservation Act into law. At night, speeds are restricted to 65 mph on interstate highways and 55 mph on two-lanes. Only one state, Montana, is left unspoiled with no daytime speed limit. Trilobites blaze across the continental drift for eons before oceans turn to highways that man promptly ruins with speed limits. And we might still have one state without a numerical speed limit. He was also convicted in 2006 of being a prohibited person in possession of firearms and ammunition.īut in Montana, had he opted to pay the $70 fine, he could have made the ticket go away without the violation being recorded on his driving record. He was found guilty in 1984 of violations of the Federal Meat Inspection Act, a crime for which he was sentenced to six years in prison and fined $70,000. His interaction with the courts, both before this case and since, has been prolific. Stanko was never one to be intimidated by the law. In its finding, the court also stated that the “reasonable and prudent” clause, because of its vagueness, denied defendants due process. ” Neither the citing officer nor the attorney general at the time were able to specify a speed that would have been safe at the location where Stanko was stopped. It called the “reasonable and prudent” clause vague on the grounds that it “impermissibly delegates basic policy matters to policemen, judges, and juries for resolution on an ad hoc and subjective basis. That court, in a four-to-three ruling, reversed the district court’s judgment. His second appeal landed the case in the Montana Supreme Court in December 1998. He contested the charge in justice and district courts and was convicted by a jury twice. In March 1996, Stanko was ticketed for traveling 85 mph on Montana State Highway 200. It was Stanko’s case that gave the Montana legislature reason to impose a highway speed limit. Stanko is the man who challenged Montana’s “reasonable and prudent” speed law, which stood between 19 and again between 19. Rudy Stanko, a man of many court battles, has had only one that matters to driving enthusiasts. From the December 2017 issue A Good Thing Gone