Supreme Court Rules On Rearview Mirror Objects

HARTFORD (AP) — Connecticut’s Supreme Court says it is not a sin under state law for drivers to hang a cross or other decorative object from their rearview mirrors.

The court ruled 4-3 in a decision released Monday that it is only illegal to hang something from a rearview mirror if it distracts the driver or blocks his or her vision.

The ruling comes in the case of a man who was charged with drunken driving in Danielson in March 2006. A trooper testified he stopped the car because it had a cross hanging from a chain on the mirror, violating state law against having objects there.

The high court affirmed lower courts’ rulings that since the trooper never claimed the cross was impeding the driver’s vision, he never should have been pulled over and the drunken driving charge must be dismissed.