Court Rules: Swartentruber Amish Community No Longer Need Orange Triangles on Buggies

October 21, 2003

Source: American Civil Liberties Union

http://www.aclu.org/ReligiousLiberty/ReligiousLiberty.cfm?ID=14162&c=29

On October 21, 2003 American Civil Liberties Union reported that "the required display of orange triangles on their horse-drawn buggies is a thing of the past for Pennsylvania's Swartzentruber Amish after a panel of three Pennsylvania Superior Court judges ruled 2-1 today that the triangle is no longer the only legal means of calling attention to their buggies... The decision, which puts Pennsylvania in line with other states to have addressed the issue, allows the Swartzentrubers buggies to be outlined with a retroreflective tape that the Swartzentrubers find less offensive to their religious beliefs, but that previously had earned them traffic tickets - and even jail time. The Swartzentrubers object to both the color and the triangular shape of the emblem Pennsylvania requires them to display."