Active Duty Military, Reg/Licensed in FL, Pulled over in CA for Window Tint

[tacetman]

I found a couple posts with similar questions but none of them were quite like this or resolved completely.

I am Active Duty Military, currently stationed in California. My state of legal residence is Florida -- I have a (valid) Florida driver's license with my current address (in CA) on it. My car is also registered in California. I've been here for over a year, no issues.

I was pulled over this morning due to having tint on my windows. The officer informed me that California law prohibits window tinting of any kind from the front windows. He also told me that since I was stationed in California, I would have to get a California driver's license and register my car there.

I am 99.999% positive that he is wrong about the license and the registration. My legal knowledge is fairly limited, but I do know that I am allowed to maintain legal residence in Florida despite being stationed elsewhere, and I believe that if I got a CA license, that would be implying that my legal residence is in CA. Since I'm a FL resident, I also am pretty confident I am allowed to keep my car registered there.

My primary question is: since, again, I am a FL resident driving a FL-registered vehicle, do I have to comply with CA restrictions on window tint? Seems like I shouldn't -- if that were true then anyone from out of state driving through California on vacation / trip would be subject to ticketing for window tint (or something else) that was perfectly legal where they came from.

Thanks for the help.

 

[LdiJ]

I found a couple posts with similar questions but none of them were quite like this or resolved completely.

I am Active Duty Military, currently stationed in California. My state of legal residence is Florida -- I have a (valid) Florida driver's license with my current address (in CA) on it. My car is also registered in California. I've been here for over a year, no issues.

I was pulled over this morning due to having tint on my windows. The officer informed me that California law prohibits window tinting of any kind from the front windows. He also told me that since I was stationed in California, I would have to get a California driver's license and register my car there.

I am 99.999% positive that he is wrong about the license and the registration. My legal knowledge is fairly limited, but I do know that I am allowed to maintain legal residence in Florida despite being stationed elsewhere, and I believe that if I got a CA license, that would be implying that my legal residence is in CA. Since I'm a FL resident, I also am pretty confident I am allowed to keep my car registered there.

My primary question is: since, again, I am a FL resident driving a FL-registered vehicle, do I have to comply with CA restrictions on window tint? Seems like I shouldn't -- if that were true then anyone from out of state driving through California on vacation / trip would be subject to ticketing for window tint (or something else) that was perfectly legal where they came from.

Thanks for the help.

I would recommend speaking to your base JAG about the issue. I am pretty sure that you are right about the license and registration, but they will have the definative answer and if they don't know offhand about the window tint, I am sure that they can find out.

 

[csi7]

Yes, you will probably have to abide by California's tint rule. I agree with LDiJ that you need to speak with on base attorney office about the vehicle registration and license.

The on base attorney can also tell you whether or not you have to abide by the California tint rule.

 

[davew128]

Yes, you will probably have to abide by California's tint rule. I agree with LDiJ that you need to speak with on base attorney office about the vehicle registration and license.

The on base attorney can also tell you whether or not you have to abide by the California tint rule.

Only if his car is already registered here does it need to get rid of the tint. The cop was otherwise completely wrong. Where in CA was this, Chula Vista?

 

[tacetman]

Only if his car is already registered here does it need to get rid of the tint. The cop was otherwise completely wrong. Where in CA was this, Chula Vista?

Fresno.

To the rest: Unfortunately, due to budget cuts, there is no local JAG available (I'm not kidding). I put in a request to speak to a regional JAG, but it may take a while.

Although it may not be REQUIRED for me to remove my tint, I think I am going to do it just to avoid getting hassled in the future, although given that it's expected to hit 110 degrees this weekend, it sure would be nice to have something keeping my car cool...