I turned a traffic ticket into a constitutional trial
I don&#x27;t agree with the Constitutional analysis. The distinction between civil and criminal law is not baked into the Constitution (although the Constitution assumes the existence of such a distinction at certain points). <i>I.e.</i> states have great leeway to design their legal procedure as they see fit with relatively few Constitutional limits. The main limits are due process, and the specific protections applicable to criminal proceedings.<p>Due process does not set hard and fast rules about indictments, etc. Rather, the due-process analysis is dependent on context. Part of that context is the &quot;amount of the deprivation.&quot; Where the deprivation is minor, the amount of process the government must provide is less.<p>For example, courts have long recognized that there are a class of offenses such as breaches of the peace that do not require the jury trial ordinarily required by criminal proceedings:<p>&gt; So, also, in New Jersey, where the constitution guaranteed that &quot;the right of trial by jury shall remain inviolate,&quot; the court said: &quot;Extensive and summary police powers are constantly exercised in all the States of the Union for the repression of breaches of the peace and petty offences, and these statutes are not supposed to conflict with the constitutional provisions securing to the citizen a trial by jury... . This constitutional provision does not prevent the enforcement of the by-laws of a municipal corporation without a jury trial.&quot; McGear v. Woodruff, 4 Vroom, 213, 217. In State v. Conlin, 27 Vermont, 318, 323, the court sustains the right of the legislature to provide for the punishment of minor offences, having reference to the internal police of the State, &quot;with fine only, or imprisonment in the county jail for a brief and limited period.&quot; See, also, Williams v. Augusta, 4 Georgia, 509.<p>Callan v. Wilson, 127 U.S. 540, 552 (1888).<p>Many states have a concept of civil infractions. When dealing with such an infraction, the state is invoking its police powers (and thus does not have to show an injury to itself as would be required in an ordinary civil action), but the ordinary rules of criminal procedure do not apply. That does not offend the Constitution because due process,[1] does not require full criminal procedure for a $50 fine.<p>[1] The word &quot;due&quot; literally means &quot;warranted&quot; or &quot;appropriate.&quot;