Window Tinting California Law - Vehicle Code Section 26708(A)(1)

Some, but not all, window tinting is illegal in California. Section 26708, subdivision (a) provides in part: "(1) a person shall not drive any motor vehicle with any object or material placed, displayed, installed, affixed, or applied upon the windshield or side or rear windows. (2) a person shall not drive any motor vehicle with any object or material placed, displayed, installed, affixed, or applied in or upon the vehicle that obstructs or reduces the driver's clear view through the windshield or side windows." In People v. Colbert (2007) 157 Cal.App.4th 1068, the officer testified "that the air freshener obstructed defendant's view through the windshield, and he explained how he had personally experienced that an object of similar size obstructed a driver's view of vehicles and pedestrians through the windshield." (Colbert, at p. 1073.) The officer's testimony, the court concluded, "provided specific and articulable facts that supported an objectively reasonable conclusion that the hanging air freshener in defendant's vehicle violated Vehicle Code section 26708, subdivision (a)(2)." (Ibid.)