Title: State v. Darius J. Carter

State: new-jersey

Issuer: New Jersey Supreme Court

Document:

SYLLABUS

This syllabus is not part of the Court’s opinion. It has been prepared by the Office of the
Clerk for the convenience of the reader. It has been neither reviewed nor approved by the
Court. In the interest of brevity, portions of an opinion may not have been summarized.

                     State v. Darius J. Carter (A-66-19) (083221)
                State v. Miguel A. Roman-Rosado (A-67-19) (084074)

Argued April 27, 2021 -- Decided August 2, 2021

RABNER, C.J., writing for a unanimous Court.

        In recent years, more than 100,000 drivers annually have been ticketed for
violating  N.J.S.A. 39:3-33 (section 33), which includes a prohibition against “driv[ing] a
motor vehicle which has a license plate frame . . . that conceals or otherwise obscures any
part of any marking imprinted upon the vehicle’s registration plate.” The defendants in
these consolidated appeals were stopped while driving. The stops were pretextual:
officers stopped each defendant because part of their license plates were covered, but the
purpose was to try to develop a criminal investigation. The police found contraband in
both cases, which formed the grounds for defendants’ convictions.

       Defendants argue that if section 33 is read expansively, the statute is
unconstitutionally vague and overly broad, and also invites discriminatory enforcement.
The State opposes those arguments and relies in the alternative on Heien v. North
Carolina,