Opposition To Click It or Ticket
Opposition to the effort is primarily based on the belief that requiring wearing of a seatbelt is a violation of civil rights. For example, Prof. Walter E. Williams of George Mason University writes, "The point is whether government has a right to coerce us into taking care of ourselves. If eating what we wish is our business and not that of government, then why should we accept government's coercing us to wear seat belts?" Journalist Scott Indrisek has strenuously worked to oppose mandatory seat belt efforts, which he calls "a black stain on America." Additional objections settle specifically around the assertion that a seatbelt is a medical device, and because one is entitled to make their own medical decisions they should also be permitted to make their own decisions about wearing a seatbelt.
Two Internet-based groups were founded to advocate this line of thinking. Stick It to Click It or Ticket operated a website and discussion forum, as did The Coalition for Seatbelt Choice. Both groups provided various levels of assistance to citation recipients by encouraging them to take their tickets to court. The groups have sponsored letter-writing campaigns to the editors of newspapers against compulsory seatbelt statutes. Both sites have since disappeared.
In Maryland, former Governor Robert Ehrlich opposed spotlights used by police officers to see into vehicles at night to determine if seat belts were being used on the basis that this violated privacy. Nighttime enforcement was suspended at the governor's request. Nighttime enforcement was resumed by Ehrlich's successor, Martin O'Malley, hours after O'Malley took office in January 2007.
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