than I owe the state for my use of their road monopoly.
RIGHT TO TRAVEL
The forgotten legal maxim is that free people have a right to travel on the roads, which are provided by their servants for that purpose, using ordinary transportation of the day. Licensing, mandatory insurance or even wearing a seat belt cannot be required of the free people, because taking on the restrictions of a licensing requires the surrender of a right. The driver’s license can be required of people who use the highways for trade, commerce, or hire; that is, if they earn their living on the road, and if they use extraordinary machines on the roads. In other words, if you are not using the highways for profit, you cannot be required to have a driver’s license.
If ever a judge understood the public’s right to use the public roads, it was Justice Tolman of the Supreme Court of Washington. Justice Tolman stated:
“Complete freedom of the highways is so old and well established a blessing that we have forgotten the days of the Robber Barons and toll roads, and yet, under an act like this, arbitrarily administered, the highways may be completely monopolized, if, through lack of interest, the people submit, than they may look to see the most sacred of their liberties taken from them one by one, by more or less rapid encroachment.” Robertson v. Department of Public Works, 180 Wash 133, 147.
“Personal liberty largely consists of the Right of locomotion – to go where and when one pleases – only so far restrained as the Rights of others may make in necessary for the welfare of all other citizens. The Right of the Citizen to travel upon the public highways and to transport his property thereon, by horse drawn carriage, wagon. Or automobile, is not a mere privilege which may be permitted or prohibited at will, but the common Right which he has under his Rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Under this Constitution guarantee one may, therefore, under normal conditions, travel at his inclination along the public highways or in the public places, and while conducting himself in an orderly and decent manner, neither interfering with nor disturbing another’s Rights, he will be protected, not only in his person, but in his safe conduce.” [emphasis added] II Am.Jur. (1st)Constitutional Law, Sec. 329, p.1135.
