It still
says, “legal tender, for all debts, public and private” – but it’s becoming clear the powers-that-be would much
prefer you used something else.
Besides cash money, that is.
Increasingly, they are
insisting.
A few weeks ago, for example, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a motorist on a toll road who tries to pay the toll with cash may be physically detained – and forced to submit to an an interrogation. (PDF of the ruling is available
here.)
Last year, Florida residents Joel, Deborah and Robert Chandler were driving on the Florida Turnpike – hilariously named
The Less Stressway – when they came upon a toll both, operated by private contractor
Faneuil, Inc. for the state of Florida. They attempted to pay the toll with legal tender –
cash. A $50 bill. Faneuil, Inc.
really wants people to use “SunPass” electronic transponders and has eliminated cash toll lanes on a section of the Parkway between the Exit 1 and Exit 47 interchanges in Miami-Dade County. This happened to be the stretch of road on which the Chandlers were driving that day. They did not have the electronic “Sun Pass” transponder – perhaps because, like many motorists, they don’t like the idea of a government-issued (or corporate issued) electronic transmitter in their vehicle – which can
track their vehicle. The transponders make it easy to monitor where a car goes, when it goes – and how quickly it goes. Reasonably, many people – including the Chandlers – prefer not to be so monitored.
So, they tried to pay the toll with cash.
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