The Helmet Law Defense League (HLDL) is a group founded in 1993 that opposes the laws in states which mandate motorcycle helmets. The group contends that mandatory motorcycle helmet laws enacted at the state, county, and municipal levels of government against consumers and users are unconstitutional due to vagueness, and this often results in arbitrary and ad hoc enforcement in those states which have enacted mandatory helmet laws.
The HLDL claims that the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) enacted by the US Congress at the United States Federal level under USC Title 49 Chapter 301 apply to manufacturers, importers, distributors, and retailers, but proscribe no regulation to consumers and motorists, and in the opinion of the HLDL's supporters, no enforcement guidelines for law enforcement agencies at the state level or below. Based on these opinions, the HLDL claims that in states which have embedded statutory reference to Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, those standards are not applicable to consumers and those motorists who choose to use, or to not use, motorcycle helmets. Therefore, the HLDL says, enforcement actions are arbitrary and ad hoc.
The HLDL researches, analyzes, and publishes many different legal arguments founded on Constitutional law, statutory law, and common law.
Upon the (cancer) death of Richard "Quig" Quigley, biker rights advocate, on September 15, 2007, the HLDL internet site, which was constantly updated by Quigley, was frozen in time. Surviving members of the Helmet Law Defense League continue to be active in analyzing legal arguments, and contesting helmet laws in both pro se and attorney-assisted court cases. Publication of Helmet Law Defense League articles and updates, post-2007, has migrated to a think tank within the national motorcyclist rights collective known as Bikers of Lesser Tolerance (B.O.L.T.), which Richard Quigley was a member.
Famous quotes containing the words helmet, law, defense and/or league:
“It’s very hot,
And weighs a lot,
As many a guardsman knows,
So off that helmet goes.”
—Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911)
“In a democracy—even if it is a so-called democracy like our white-élitist one—the greatest veneration one can show the rule of law is to keep a watch on it, and to reserve the right to judge unjust laws and the subversion of the function of the law by the power of the state. That vigilance is the most important proof of respect for the law.”
—Nadine Gordimer (b. 1923)
“He said, truly, that the reason why such greatly superior numbers quailed before him was, as one of his prisoners confessed, because they lacked a cause,—a kind of armor which he and his party never lacked. When the time came, few men were found willing to lay down their lives in defense of what they knew to be wrong; they did not like that this should be their last act in this world.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“He will deliver you from six troubles; in seven no harm shall touch you. In famine he will redeem you from death, and in war from the power of the sword. You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, and shall not fear destruction when it comes. At destruction and famine you shall laugh, and shall not fear the wild animals of the earth. For you shall be in league with the stones of the field, and the wild animals shall be at peace with you.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Job 5:19-23.