Opinion ID: 2755606
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Lawfulness of the Initial Traffic Stop

Text: Chartier contends that the initial traffic stop was unlawful under the Fourth Amendment. We disagree. A traffic stop is a seizure subject to the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments’ protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. 648, 653 (1979). “Under the Fourth Amendment, a traffic stop is reasonable if it is supported by either probable cause or an articulable and reasonable suspicion that a traffic violation has occurred.” United States v. Washington, 455 F.3d 824, 826 (8th Cir. 2006). If there is an “articulable and reasonable suspicion that a motorist is unlicensed or that an automobile is not registered,” a traffic stop on that basis is not unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment. Prouse, 440 U.S. at 663. Naaktgeboren stopped the vehicle only after he ran the information from the license plate and determined that the vehicle’s owner did not have a currently valid license to drive. Chartier suggests that Naaktgeboren could not conduct a traffic stop on that basis because the actual driver of the vehicle was female and easily visibly distinguishable from the male registered owner. But only the back of the driver’s head was visible through the Grand Marquis’s rear window. It was dark, weather conditions were poor, and there was no passing lane that Naaktgeboren could use to -4- pull up safely alongside the vehicle to identify the driver. Given the road and weather conditions, the Fourth Amendment did not require that Naaktgeboren affirmatively identify the sex of the driver or further investigate the driver’s physical appearance before initiating a traffic stop. Thus, Naaktgeboren had an articulable and objectively reasonable suspicion that a motorist without a valid license was driving the vehicle, and his decision to initiate a traffic stop did not violate the Fourth Amendment.