The Briefing Room
General Category => National/Breaking News => SCOTUS News => Topic started by: Elderberry on October 28, 2019, 07:09:42 pm
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SCOTUSblog by Evan Lee 10/28/2019
Argument preview: Can the police stop a vehicle because its registered owner’s license has been suspended or revoked?
Next Monday, November 4, the Supreme Court will hear argument in a case that asks whether it is reasonable to suspect that the registered owner of a vehicle is currently its driver. In Kansas v. Glover, the state of Kansas warns of a serious threat to public safety should the judgment of the Kansas Supreme Court be affirmed, while the driver, Charles Glover, warns of dangerous police discretion if it is reversed.
The parties have stipulated to the following facts. While on routine morning patrol in or around Lawrence, Kansas, Sheriff’s Deputy Mark Mehrer saw a 1995 Chevy 1500 pickup and decided to run a check on the registration. Mehrer had not witnessed any traffic violations. The database check showed that the truck belonged to Glover, and that Glover’s license had been revoked. Mehrer did not see who was driving; he assumed it was Glover, the registered owner. When Mehrer stopped the truck, he discovered that Glover was in fact driving, and Glover was eventually charged as a habitual violator for driving with a revoked license.
At trial, Glover moved to suppress all the evidence growing out of the traffic stop on the ground that the traffic stop violated the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable seizures because Mehrer lacked reasonable suspicion that a crime had been committed. The trial judge suppressed the evidence, remarking that, in her family, all three cars were registered in her name, yet two of them were mostly driven by her husband and daughter. After a Kansas intermediate appellate court reversed, the Kansas Supreme Court reinstated the suppression order. It found that, without additional evidence, Mehrer’s assumption that the owner was driving was unjustified. Allowing an officer to assume that an owner with a revoked license was driving would effectively relieve the state of its burden to demonstrate reasonable suspicion, the state supreme court concluded.
More: https://www.scotusblog.com/2019/10/argument-preview-can-the-police-stop-a-vehicle-because-its-registered-owners-license-has-been-suspended-or-revoked/ (https://www.scotusblog.com/2019/10/argument-preview-can-the-police-stop-a-vehicle-because-its-registered-owners-license-has-been-suspended-or-revoked/)
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I guess this would also include if one's license had expired.
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I guess this would also include if one's license had expired.
Or if the check showed a past DUI arrest on the vehicle owner....
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Or that he hadn't donated to the Policemen's Benevolent fund.
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The fact that the truck was owned by a guy whose license had been suspended - IOW, his driving would be a crime - is not grounds to suspect a crime was being committed? I do not understand how an honest person could argue that with a straight face.
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The fact that the truck was owned by a guy whose license had been suspended - IOW, his driving would be a crime - is not grounds to suspect a crime was being committed? I do not understand how an honest person could argue that with a straight face.
Papers Please...
I understand what everyone one is concerned about here... But I do not think this is an example of a man being secure in his person, papers, etc. This is against the 4th.
Part of why I really oppose licenses altogether. Either you own your property or you don't, no matter where it happens to be.
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Papers Please...
I understand what everyone one is concerned about here... But I do not think this is an example of a man being secure in his person, papers, etc. This is against the 4th.
Part of why I really oppose licenses altogether. Either you own your property or you don't, no matter where it happens to be.
Owning the property is not the issue for licensing. Using it on a public owned roadway is the cause for licensing.
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Owning the property is not the issue for licensing. Using it on a public owned roadway is the cause for licensing.
Then every other thing you own is subject to license, search, and seizure too, providing it happens to be in public space. The precedent is there.
Similar to TSA becoming part of the furniture... Fear has caused folks to give up the right to travel unmolested...
And that is a big part of what the 4th is for.
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So the son, daughter, or wife can be pulled over if the father/spouse, the registered owners license is suspended? And when you drive a rental you need to worry if the owner's license has been suspended?
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So the son, daughter, or wife can be pulled over if the father/spouse, the registered owners license is suspended? And when you drive a rental you need to worry if the owner's license has been suspended?
Some years ago, after my unfortunate and unjust incarceration, my wife experienced an unusual amount of questionable traffic stops. The excuses given for the stops varied after the officer realised the pretty redhead behind the wheel was not the excon on the registration who had a sex change.
So I feel strongly the Court should rule in favor of the plaintiff.
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The cop should have just kicked out the taillight as he walked up to the truck or better yet just said he recognized that Glover was driving said vehicle.
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and decided to run a check on the registration. Mehrer had not witnessed any traffic violations. The database check showed that the truck belonged to Glover, and that Glover’s license had been revoked.
I'm not sure there aren't two problems before we even get this far. No registration check was warranted, and there's no reason to link registration to drivers license (save maybe convenience when making a legit stop).
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Here is the problem I have with the State's case:
They want the precedent that they can assume any car is being driven by its owner. What if a Police license-plate recording camera places a vehicle near a crime scene? Can the State now claim the owner was near the scene, and then obtain warrants to search that owner at his home for evidence related to the crime near where his car was seen?
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The excuses given for the stops varied after the officer realised the pretty redhead behind the wheel was not the excon on the registration who had a sex change.
So what you're really telling me is that it wasn't on the weekend... :whistle:
:tongue2: