Amish Are Suing Over The Ohio Buggy Light Law
The Columbus Dispatch reports that Amish in Ohio are suing over a law requiring flashing lights on buggies:
The Swartzentruber Amish are suing to overturn Ohio’s new traffic law that requires animal-drawn buggies to have yellow flashing lights, saying the law conflicts with the First Amendment protecting their religious expression.
The Swartzentruber order, which enlisted legal help from Harvard University Law School’s Religious Freedom Clinic, is suing to block enforcement of the law.
More than 200 tickets have been issued to Amish buggy drivers since lawmakers adopted the regulation in June 2022. The law change came after a statewide study showed 723 buggy crashes, including 15 that involved fatalities, over a 10-year period.
We covered this topic in much depth in 2022 and 2023, when the law was proposed and then enacted. I argued that the law did not take into account Amish groups such as the Swartzentrubers who would predictably object and fail to comply.
Nor did it provide for sensible alternatives which Swartzentruber Amish might be persuaded to adopt (based on other Swartzentruber Amish having adopted them).
Amish in turn faced court appearances, fines, liens placed on their properties, and threats of jail time, as a result of not adhering to the new law.
For an overview, you can also see Joe Donnermeyer’s excellent post.
But I thought the Amish don’t sue?
It’s traditionally the case that the Amish don’t sue in a court of law. This reluctance or refusal to bring lawsuits is in line with their beliefs in nonresistance.
But as regular readers here know, it’s usually tough to say “the Amish always” or “the Amish never”.
In certain significant matters, Amish have in fact taken on legal representation in defending aspects of their lifestyle, culture, and religious beliefs. Other examples include:
- Minnesota Swartzentruber Amish gray water case
- Adams County, Indiana municipal sewer case
- Amish couple sues federal government over photo ID requirement
Some Amish will also retain legal representation to defend themselves, as in the Amos Miller raw milk case, or even going back to the Wisconsin v. Yoder Supreme Court decision.
But of note: it is often spurred on by outsiders looking in on their plight. In this case, it appears the Amish were connected with the lawyers of Harvard University’s Religious Freedom Clinic through the efforts of sociologist Cory Anderson. From Religion News Service:
“They will not directly ask for attorneys to represent them, and they will not pay attorneys because they believe in being ‘defenseless Christians,’” said Anderson, a Plain Mennonite, which shares many theological and cultural similarities with the Amish.
Often when the Amish receive legal help, it is because someone outside the community offers it, as in the famous case of Wisconsin v. Yoder, in which a group of academics, lawyers and civil rights activists banded together to argue that Amish children should be exempt from higher education. (The Supreme Court sided with the Amish in 1972.) The American Civil Liberties Union provided legal assistance in other Swartzentruber buggy cases.
This time, Anderson put out feelers to different firms, trying to figure out who might step in. A game of legal telephone ensued, until eventually news of the Swartzentrubers’ predicament reached Harvard.
So it’s not exactly true that “the Amish don’t sue”. Even the plainest and most conservative Amish, as we see in this case, might employ legal representation in extraordinary circumstances – and typically with the initiative of outsider parties helping it to happen.
It’s not only the Swartzentruber Amish
One interesting thing to note is that this lawsuit was filed in Hardin County, Ohio. That county has a population of very plain Amish, but they’re not Swartzentruber Amish.
The Kenton, Ohio Amish also do not use the SMV triangle or flashing lights, opting for a unique reflective tape pattern on the backs of their buggies.
Cory Anderson notes in his article “Buggy Safety or Religious Infringement” that “Four Old Order Amish from Swartzentruber and Kenton sects (see Petrovich 2017) are challenging a new Ohio state law requiring their buggies to have a yellow flashing light.”
More on that from Anderson’s article:
Earlier, I mentioned a Swartzentruber committee in the 1960s working with the government. Around 1962-63, Swartzentruber church leaders created a committee of laymen so that church leaders needn’t take on the additional spotlighted roles, such as handling church/state issues. They wanted to protect the religious charge of leaders from other responsibilities.
Perhaps this committee reminds some readers of the “Old Order Amish Steering Committee” (Olshan 1990). While it has a similar purpose, this one is specifically responsive to Swartzentruber Amish concerns.
Today, several such committees exist among the Swartzentrubers, representing different subgroups and communities. The three plaintiffs representing Swartzentruber sub-sects are on committees for the Joe Troyer, Mose Miller, and Andy Weaver groups. They reside in northeastern Ohio, namely, Medina and Wayne Counties, where, along with Ashland County, most citations have been issued. The fourth plaintiff is a bishop in the Kenton group, located in northwestern Ohio, where the case was filed. I am aware of one citation in this area.
So in essence, the four Amish plaintiffs represent four Amish groups/sub-groups most affected here.
The Swartzentruber Amish are the ones who get the most attention on this, but it’s worth remembering that they’re not the only ones potentially affected.
Anderson also noted that the Hardin County Common Pleas Court granted a temporary restraining order last week.
So we enter the next phase of a predictable conflict. It’ll probably be some time before anything is “finally” resolved.
I am open to being (very) surprised. However, I don’t see the affected groups (especially the Swartzentruber subgroups) ever adopting this lighting.
Addendum: I need to expand on that last bit as I realized it’s a pretty broad statement. In the future, it may very well be that Swartzentruber Amish end up using some form of lighting on their buggies. The future covers a lot of time. And so “ever” is too strong a word. With that statement, I was referring to this current conflict.
In a post from late 2022, I excerpted a news report of an Amishman who was pulled over and cited for not having a light, who claimed that “We heard about it. I would put it on but my bishop is not allowing me.”
I do not know to what degree that sentiment has sincere support among members of Swartzentruber Amish churches. But if there are enough younger members who are comfortable with the idea of adding lighting, at some point (a generation or more down the line?) some of these churches may even arrive at adopting lighting on their own. Even the Swartzentruber Amish adopt certain changes over time.
There is also the possibility of an individual Swartzentruber church or churches adopting the lighting in response to the current conflict. That would likely be grounds for some sort of schism, which the Swartzentruber Amish are no stranger to.
But I would be very surprised if all the Swartzentruber groups which have become involved in this lawsuit ended up adopting the required lighting across-the-board in response to this conflict. More likely, I think, would be some sort of compromise solution.
What about MY rights?
Don’t I have the right to share the road with those that can be seen? Considering they drive a vehicle with a mind of its own, perhaps my rights as a motorist should be considered. Considerable damage, injury or death is a very real option when hitting an object such as a buggy one cannot readily see. It has happened, and when it does, people die.
When do we get safe roads, and why are we saddled with their religious choices? I want to share the road with very visible vehicles, damn their religion, I don’t want to practice it for them! We have rights too, and one of them is to not have some backwards cultists endanger our lives. The laws of the land are there for a reason. If they want to break the laws, they must have a better reason than my safety. They do not.
It isn't that simple
I agree other road users have a right to see them, but so long as they are prepared to adopt other measures (reflective tape, pipe on buggy wheels, other forms of lighting), I don’t think demanding they adopt any particular solution is reasonable. Cultural imperialism (we would use flashing lights to deal with this so you have to) is always worrying.
Name calling doesn’t help. If the law required vegans to torture a cat whenever they went out in the car as a sort of foghorn (crazy example, but it makes the point) everyone would think people were entirely reasonable to refuse to do so and would protest very hard that there are other options. Moreover, coming up with a solution the more conservative Amish are happy with and will conscientiously obey will almost certainly be far more effective in real terms.
I would add, also, that there is no end to the restrictions one person can demand of another on the basis that safety is more important. Will the law forbid the use of cars other than that someone has previously gone down to the police station and justified that their journey has a sufficiently serious reason to justify the risk of a fatal car accident, and has therefore been given formal permission to go out in their car and take that risk? “Safety,” is an argument that matters, but it isn’t one that can be allowed to trump any and every other consideration without thought, because if it does there is simply no limit to it. Religious freedom is supposed to be an important principle, yet it is more and more being eroded. Secular nation states find it difficult to distinguish what is and isn’t religion, so they decide that it could be a justification for anything, and therefore start insisting that it is a justification for nothing. And this will probably bite back eventually, because that principle is exactly the one that includes the freedom to be non-religious if you so choose.
If any group of Amish are really refusing to do ANYTHING, and the issue is genuinely about the rights of other road users (not THEIR safety, which I would regard as pure nanny state arrogance), then I think there is a genuine problem, but I would hesitate to conclude that without a lot of discussion.
Good Points
Thank you for sharing a balanced viewpoint.
The Biblical basis for refusing to comply with the law is likely Acts 5:29, to obey God rather than men. As long as the law doesn’t conflict with their beliefs, they obey. If they perceive a conflict they will choose to obey God’s law as they understand it.
If the goal is to prevent accidents, then it makes sense for the authorities to find out what the Amish are willing to use to enhance visibility and help them implement the solution.
If the goal is to “win,” or impose differing beliefs and standards on the Amish, then there will never be a solution.
Interestingly enough, while using Google Maps Street View, I did come across a buggy on Carr Road in Wayne County, captured in August 2023, that appeared to be a Swartzentruber buggy, with a narrow dashboard, mechanical lever brakes, and no SMV triangle, but had what looked like an electric light mounted on the top middle back. There were two women in Swartzentruber dress inside, suggesting it wasn’t just a demonstration of a compliant buggy created by lawmakers. If you want to judge for yourselves, the web address is https://www.google.com/maps/@40.691792,-81.8520889,3a,75y,64.5h,81.61t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sFmY3xwIknZyYBBsDtzbLbw!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D8.38777136098824%26panoid%3DFmY3xwIknZyYBBsDtzbLbw%26yaw%3D64.4952204634965!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MTIwMy4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
Sorry, I’ll try to post that web address again, as part of it got cut off as it was so long:
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.691792,-81.8520889,3a,75y,64.5h,81.61t/data=!3m7!1e1!
3m5!1sFmY3xwIknZyYBBsDtzbLbw!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-
pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%
3D600%26pitch%3D8.39%26panoid%3DFmY3xwIknZyYBBsDtzbLbw%26yaw%3D64.5!7i16384!
8i8192?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI0MTIwMy4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
Kal
You may have them confused with the very small “Abe Troyer” Amish group. They are very similar to the Swartzentruber Amish, but more progressive and they have allowed battery flashers.
Very interesting find, R.C., and thanks for sharing. That buggy certainly does look like a Swartzentruber-style buggy. So, three comments on this.
1 – To add to Kal’s idea on this thread, of this possibly being a small related plain group, I was in touch with a couple of local Ohio sources, who suggested another possibility – that this is perhaps simply a Swartzentruber youth buggy. If they are not baptized, they could customize their buggy in this way to simply avoid trouble.
The women inside, based on their clothing, look like they are heading to church or returning from a formal event. A teenage son’s buggy with a mounted light would be a handy asset for members of a Swartzentruber household that need to be out and about but wish to avoid getting pulled over and ticketed.
2 – I had a look at the various screen captures of this buggy in Street View moving up and down the road. One thing I noticed was that the Google camera never seemed to capture this light while flashing. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t turned on, but it raises another possibility.
3 – It occurred to me that one form of compromise might be for some Amish to mount lights – but not activate them. They could even be the light covers without bulb, and no battery on board the buggy – just a light or something that looks like one mounted at the top. This might provide a form of cover that allows law enforcement to look the other way, since the owners of the buggy must have simply “forgotten” to turn the light on.
When Joe Donnermeyer did a survey of buggies in the Holmes County community, he found that of 345 buggies he observed with mounted lights, 19 of them were not activated at the time.
In any case, thanks for sharing this. It looks like we don’t have a conclusive answer about this buggy, but there are some interesting possibilities.
I’m more concerned about drunk drivers, speeding drivers, not paying attention drivers, and so on.
If safety is your concern, than focus on these types of drivers first. They’ve killed/injured FAR MORE people than Amish buggies with no lights or reflective material.
Yea, I prefer the Amish use lights and reflective material. However, drunk drivers, speeding drivers, not paying attention drivers, and so on, will still exist and continue to cause more death and destruction than Amish buggies.
It's the law
if you knew how many young ones are drunk at night or there past out and the horse is the one really driving you would understand more
Question about the Allen and Daviess swiss amish
I know that Allen county swiss amish are more liberal than the adams county swiss amish and i know that the daviess county swiss amish have “lost” their swiss language.
Where on the conservative-liberal spectrum would you put them? If you could compare their “conservatism” with other mainstream groups, like Andy Weaver, Buchanan, or Aylmer amish, i would highly appreciate it.
Buggies with Yellow flashing lights
I live in Mt. Eaton. Work with and interact with many Swartzentruber Amish. Several have yellow flashing lights mounted on the rear of their buggies for several months in 2024.
Thanks for sharing this Allen. Would you be able share any more, without giving away personal details of course?
For instance, do you happen to know which Swartzentruber subgroup they may be a part of? What is the approximate age of the buggy owners? Do any of them also have an orange SMV triangle affixed to the buggy?
It's the law
Just like english wearing seat belt’s we have to it’s the law and flashing lights or a triangle on the back has nothing to do with religious rights ,, it’s for the safety of us all, if you don’t like it then stay off the road it’s that simple