The federal government wants judges to know more about masking. What is it, and what do judges need to know? What is masking? Masking refers to hiding motor vehicle convictions sustained by the holders of commercial driver’s licenses. Federal regulations prohibit that practice. Those rules provide that a state “must not mask, defer imposition of judgment, or allow an individual to enter into a diversion program that would prevent a CLP or CDL holder's conviction for any violation, in any type of motor vehicle, of a State or local traffic control law (other than parking, vehicle weight, or vehicle defect violations) from appearing on the CDLIS driver record, whether the driver was convicted for an offense committed in the State where the driver is licensed or another State.” 49 C.F.R. § 384.226. There are a lot of acronyms in there, so let’s unpack this a little bit. FMCSA. As part of its efforts “to reduce the number and severity of large-truck involved crashes,” Congress established in 1999 the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) in the Department of Transportation. 49 U.S.C.A. § 113 note. CDL and CLP. A central goal of the FMCSA is to ensure that there is only one driving record and one licensing document for every person who holds a commercial driver’s license (CDL), the type of license required to drive a commercial motor vehicle. Thus, federal regulations prohibit the operator of a commercial motor vehicle from having more than one driver’s license, 49 C.F.R. § 383.21, and [...]
Faculty Coordinators
