Author Topic: Court upholds stop of vehicle based entirely on registered owner having revoked license  (Read 559 times)

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SCOTUSblog by Evan Lee 4/7/2020

Opinion analysis: Court upholds stop of vehicle based entirely on registered owner having revoked license

In a narrow opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court held yesterday that a Kansas police officer had reasonable suspicion to stop a vehicle about which he knew nothing more than that its registered owner had a revoked driver’s license. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the court in Kansas v. Glover; Justice Elena Kagan wrote a concurrence stressing the narrowness of the decision, which was joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Justice Sonia Sotomayor was the lone dissenter.

On April 28, 2016, Douglas County Deputy Sheriff Mark Mehrer was on routine patrol when he saw a 1995 Chevrolet 1500 pickup truck and decided to run its plate number through the Kansas Department of Revenue database. According to the database, the truck was registered to Charles Glover Jr., who had a revoked Kansas driver’s license. Mehrer stopped the truck, which was indeed being driven by Glover. Glover was charged with being a habitual violator, but the Kansas Supreme Court ultimately upheld his motion to suppress the evidence resulting from the traffic stop on Fourth Amendment grounds.

What made this case unusual was that there were no witnesses at trial. Instead, the trial was based on a short stipulation of facts stating that Mehrer assumed the truck was being driven by the registered owner, that he did not observe any traffic infractions and that he did not attempt to identify the driver.

More:https://www.scotusblog.com/2020/04/opinion-analysis-court-upholds-stop-of-vehicle-based-entirely-on-registered-owner-having-revoked-license/