Mansfield Times

Today, 5 Amish men stood before Judge John L. Good, in the Ashland Municipal Court. All five faced charges of failing to display the yellow flashing light on top of their buggy’s.

As I pulled into the parking lot, I was surprised to see the number of Amish men getting out of their buggies. Ironically, none of them had lights on their buggies. I asked them if they, or their Bishop would give me a quick comment. A polite no, was their response.

Although court time was at 9am, most arrived around 8am. Some forgot to remove all metal, before entering the metal detector and Officers used a wand to confirm that no weapons were on their persons.

Judge Good started the proceedings by explaining the whole process and different kinds of pleas. Four Amish pled “No Contest,” and were found guilty and were assessed a $50.00 fine. One failed to convince Judge Good he understood the process, and a later date was set for him to come back.

Judge Good read a letter signed by all five men, the letter reads as follows:

Dear Sir,

The undernamed members of the Swartzentruber Amish church in Ashland County stand before you this day, accused of violating the new Ohio state law requiring all our buggies to have yellow blinking lights at all times.

A similar law had been in effect in the early 1960’s which our forefathers deemed too worldly. We are inclined to still believe so. We have an unanimous vote throughout all our affiliated church districts to not have any blinking lights whatsoever. (15 districts in Ohio)

Besides that we believe we have a unique identification for our buggies with the reflector strips outlining the buggy. A yellow light could mean a school bus going 50 mile an hour, or a stationary road sign, or anything else.

Since we are objecting for religious reasons paying a fine is not an option. We humbly apologize for any trouble this may have caused you and will leave the verdict up to your wise judgment. Thank you for your time and trouble.

Holding tickets are John S. Yoder, Eli L. Swartzentruber, Meno N. Swartzentruber, Eli D, Mast,

Signed,

Andy E. Swartzentruber

I found an article that was published, “Amish America,” Posted on June 9, 2022, where the Amish said they had no plans of complying with the new law that Ohio Governor Mike DeWine had just signed into law the week before. Link to article: https://amishamerica.com/new-ohio-law-flashing-light.../

This is not something they didn’t know about, by any means, this is something that has been well thought out. This leaves the Court’s and the Sheriff’s Office hands tied, the Sheriff’s Office has to enforce the laws and the court has to hand down the punishment to the offender. So, we have a stand-off in a battle that no one wants.

The true test will be on January, 12, 2023 when the time will expire to have their fines paid, which they have already stated they wont pay.

I do have a question for the Bishop, If the blinking light is against your beliefs, why are your own clan using flashlights to make a blinking light as a vehicle approaches them? We all have seen them use flashlights to warn approaching cars to their location. In fact, the morning I rode with the Sheriff’s Office, I witnessed that very thing taking place.