Driving Is Commerce

A private man or woman has an inherent, inviolable right to travel.

Common Law recognises the right to use the nation’s roads without a driver licence or registered vehicle as a condition of mere private travel.

“The right to travel is part of the Liberty of which a citizen cannot be deprived without due process of law under the Fifth Amendment.” — Kent v. Dulles, 357 U.S. 116 (1958).

“The right to travel is a well-established common right that does not owe its existence to the federal government. It is recognized by the courts as a natural right.” — Schactman v. Dulles, 225 F.2d 938, 941.

“The use of the highway for the purpose of travel and transportation is not a mere privilege, but a common fundamental right of which the public and individuals cannot rightfully be deprived.” — Chicago Motor Coach v. Chicago, 169 N.E. 221.

“The right of the citizen to travel upon the public highways and to transport his property thereon… is not a mere privilege which a city may prohibit or permit at will, but a common law right…” — Thompson v. Smith, 154 S.E. 579.

No state entity has power to allow or deny ordinary passage on highways as if travel itself were a privilege requiring licensing, registration, or forced insurance. — See Chicago Coach Co. v. City of Chicago, 337 Ill. 200.

Justice Tolman warned that if people submit to arbitrary monopoly of the highways, other liberties fall by encroachment. — Robertson v. Department of Public Works, 180 Wash. 133.

Registration converts travel into commerce

There is no lawful requirement that a private motor conveyance be registered, or that a private man or woman hold a driver licence or commercial insurance, merely to travel in the ordinary course of life.

If you register a motor conveyance it becomes a “vehicle” subject to commercial traffic codes, rules, regulations, and penalties. You become framed as a commercial transport operator—goods or passengers for hire, compensation, or profit. A de jure public state, having delegated power to create legal fictions for commerce, may regulate its corporate franchises on public highways for commercial gain. The state controls its creations.

Legalisation into commerce occurs mainly through registration, licensing, certification, securitisation, and general deposit.

When highways become a place of business, the state may regulate for safety and convenience. — Thompson v. Smith. The right to travel and transport property does not extend to using highways as a place for private gain; commercial use is privilege or licence the legislature may grant or withhold. — Packard v. Banton, 264 U.S. 140; Robertson v. Dept. of Public Works.

The state may create corporations for commerce and preserve safe conduct on highways, but it may not convert the lawful right to travel freely into a paid legal privilege through adhesion contracts.

Adhesion contracts are take-it-or-leave-it forms without real bargaining. — See Pendergast v. Sprint Nextel Corp. Only by consent does such a form (including a traffic ticket) become enforceable. Vehicle registration and driver-licence contracts likewise rest on consent to enter commerce.

Vessels on a sea of commerce

Commercial forms grew from merchant shipping: registered vessels, paper administration, and administrative courts with a “dock” for the accused vessel. Naval empire fused merchant Law Merchant into Admiralty/Maritime jurisdiction—the international Law of the Sea. Today registered ships, aircraft, “vehicles,” corporations, and artificial persons function as vessels in that foreign commercial jurisdiction.

The theatre of commerce assigns roles such as “driver.” Most people contract into commercial performance through non-disclosure, deceit, or coercion—fraud and unjust enrichment feeding the debt-money system. “The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.” — Edmund Burke, 1784.

By registration and licensing, people become subject to policing powers of incorporated government in commerce. Under Common Law, contracts bind only when entered knowingly, intentionally, and voluntarily. The unalienable right to travel in the ordinary course of life cannot be revoked or turned into a fee-based privilege. “The state cannot diminish Rights of the people.” — Hurtado v. California, 110 U.S. 516. “No state may convert a secured liberty into a privilege, and issue a license and fee for it.” — Murdock v. Pennsylvania, 319 U.S. 105.

Related: Jurisdiction Is the Key, Rebut the Presumption, Peace Officers.