8 Amish Men Behind Bars For Not Having Buggy Safety Signage

The Amish ride/drive buggies but those buggies are to have bright orange safety triangles attached to the back of them.
Apparently they have been given many tickets for not having the signage properly displayed and have refused to pay the fines attached to those tickets. This has now landed them in jail.

The men are from Mayfield, Kentucky where their Amish sect "Old Order of Swartzentruberis" located. This is a very traditional sect and they refused to pay the tickets based on the fact that it violates their religious restrictions. Those restrictions include the display of or wearing of bright colors and also the use of man made objects for their safety.

A judge in Kentucky sentenced the men to 3-10 days in jail. The men were taken into custody and placed in a holding cell together. They were allowed to wear dark overalls and sandals instead of the usual bright orange required to be worn by others in jail.

The Kentucky Appeals court denied the men's initial appeal and it has now been sent to the states Supreme Court but no ruling has been made as of yet. Since this Judge already sentenced the men to jail time doesn't seem that a ruling from the Supreme Court will make much difference now. In fact the men's attorney says he was disappointed that the Judge ruled on the case before they had heard from the Supreme Court.

Most other Amish groups in the area do follow the law and display the signs on their buggies. However, the Judge said she had 44 other similar cases on her docked and felt it was time to move forward with the sentencing.

Maybe the ruling from the Supreme Court will benefit others in this situation on down the road...so to speak.