What’s Hanging From Your Rear View Mirror?

Hanging an air freshener from your rearview mirror is a perfectly common practice for most drivers – but in Illinois, it can get you pulled over.

Now state lawmakers are considering a bill that would ‘decriminalize’ the practice, making it illegal for police to pull someone over purely for that reason.

Critics of the current law say it’s discriminatory – especially after the 2021 death of Daunte Wright, who was killed after being pulled over for an air freshener.

The same law exists in California but at this time, there is no challenge to the statute being considered in the Legislature. The Vehicle code here currently reads: “The California Vehicle Code states that a person shall not drive any motor vehicle with any object or material that’s placed, displayed, installed, affixed, or applied in any fashion upon the vehicle’s windows that obstructs or reduces the driver’s clear view through the windshield.”

-Tony Lee