One might say that the traffic camera is a sign of our times. Its widespread use and acceptance reveals how far we have drifted from our fundamental commitment to self-government. When our governing officials dismiss due process as mere semantics, when they exercise powers they don’t have and ignore duties they actually bear, and when we let them get away with it, we have ceased to be our own rulers.

One of the strange paradoxes of a legal education in the United States was learning how to make sure our clients had every legal right and protection possible, while at the same time learning how to take shortcuts around those same things.