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Cal: Stop of older vehicle with temporary tags just because they are more likely to be invalid violated Prouse

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

The California Supreme Court holds that a police officer cannot stop an older vehicle with a temporary tag just because statistically they are more likely to be invalid tags. This would be an unreasonable use of police discretion. People v. Hernandez, 2008 Cal. LEXIS 13744 (December 11, 2008); In re Raymond C., 2008 Cal. LEXIS 13743 (December 11, 2008): To accept the Attorney General's argument would be to depart from settled California and federal precedent requiring particularized suspicion. This we decline to do. Courts from other jurisdictions also seem uniformly to have concluded that permitting officers to stop any car with temporary permits would be to countenance the exercise of the unbridled discretion condemned in Delaware v. Prouse, supra, 440 U...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on December 17, 2008 (boomark / email).