Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-556_e1pf.pdf
Page Number: 4

2 

KANSAS v. GLOVER 

Opinion of the Court 

Chevrolet  1500  pickup  truck  with  Kansas  plate 
295ATJ. 
3.  Deputy  Mehrer  ran  Kansas  plate  295ATJ  through 
the Kansas Department of Revenue’s file service.  The 
registration came back to a 1995 Chevrolet 1500 pickup
truck. 
4.  Kansas  Department  of  Revenue  files  indicated  the 
truck  was  registered  to  Charles  Glover  Jr.    The  files 
also indicated that Mr. Glover had a revoked driver’s 
license in the State of Kansas. 
5. Deputy Mehrer assumed the registered owner of the
truck was also the driver, Charles Glover Jr. 
6.  Deputy  Mehrer  did  not  observe  any  traffic  infrac-
tions, and did not attempt to identify the driver [of] the 
truck.  Based solely on the information that the regis-
tered owner of the truck was revoked, Deputy Mehrer 
initiated a traffic stop.
7. The driver of the truck was identified as the defend-
ant, Charles Glover Jr.”  App. to Pet. for Cert. 60–61. 

The  District  Court  granted  Glover’s  motion  to  suppress. 
The Court of Appeals reversed, holding that “it was reason-
able  for  [Deputy]  Mehrer  to  infer  that  the  driver  was  the 
owner of the vehicle” because “there were specific and artic-
ulable  facts  from  which  the  officer’s  common-sense  infer-
ence gave rise to a reasonable suspicion.”  54 Kan. App. 2d 
377, 385, 400 P. 3d 182, 188 (2017). 

The Kansas Supreme Court reversed.  According to the
court, Deputy Mehrer did not have reasonable suspicion be-
cause  his  inference  that  Glover  was  behind  the  wheel 
amounted  to  “only  a  hunch”  that  Glover  was  engaging  in
criminal  activity.  308  Kan.  590,  591,  422  P. 3d  64,  66 
(2018).  The court further explained that Deputy Mehrer’s 
“hunch” involved “applying and stacking unstated assump-
tions that are unreasonable without further factual basis,” 
namely, that “the registered owner was likely the primary