Opinion ID: 762610
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The July 1, 1997, Car Stop

Text: 11 The government states in its brief on appeal that it seeks to reverse the district court's order regarding the car stop only to the extent that the order precludes the government from introducing evidence of (1) the detectives' identification of Dhinsa after the stop; (2) Dhinsa's explanation of why he was in the area; (3) Dhinsa's statements concerning ownership of the car; and (4) the exchange of contact numbers. Because the government did not seek to introduce testimony concerning the contents of the glove box or trunk, we focus our analysis solely on the permissibility of the original stop and do not consider the reasonableness of subsequent searches. 12 Dhinsa suggests two principal bases for affirming the district court's order. First, he contends that the district court was right on the law, that is, the traffic violation did not justify the stop because it did not motivate the detectives' actions. In a slight variation on this contention, Dhinsa suggested at oral argument that a recent Supreme Court decision, Knowles v. Iowa, --- U.S. ----, 119 S.Ct. 484, 142 L.Ed.2d 492 (1998), establishes that the detectives acted unconstitutionally because they did not give Dhinsa a ticket after stopping him. Alternatively, Dhinsa argues that the district court was wrong on the facts because there was no credible basis for its finding that the officers witnessed a traffic violation. 13 [T]he Fourth Amendment's concern with 'reasonableness' allows certain actions to be taken in certain circumstances, whatever the subjective intent. Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806, 814, 116 S.Ct. 1769, 135 L.Ed.2d 89 (1996). Therefore, a police officer who observes a traffic violation may stop a car without regard to what a reasonable officer would do under the circumstances and without regard to the officer's own subjective intent. See id. at 813, 815-19, 116 S.Ct. 1769; see also United States v. Scopo, 19 F.3d 777, 782-83 (2d Cir.1994). In other words, an officer's use of a traffic violation as a pretext to stop a car in order to obtain evidence for some more serious crime is of no constitutional significance. 14 The district court found that Whren and other pretext cases do not apply to Dhinsa's situation because the alleged traffic violation had nothing to do with the detectives' decision to stop Dhinsa and the detectives neither arrested nor ticketed Dhinsa. The district court and Dhinsa reason that a law enforcement officer cannot use an observed traffic violation to justify a traffic stop unless the traffic violation motivated the officer at least in part. Dhinsa contends that the Supreme Court held as it did in Whren because it is difficult as a practical matter to discern an officer's subjective intent or identify what a reasonable officer would do. Because Quinn and Pia frankly stated that they did not rely on the traffic violation as a basis for the July 1 stop, Dhinsa argues that (1) there was no pretext and (2) the only reason for the stop was to investigate Dhinsa's staring, a motive that the district court found insufficient and on which the government no longer relies. 15 Dhinsa's characterization of the Whren rationale conflicts with the holding in Whren. Admittedly, the Supreme Court discussed the difficulty of plumb[ing] the collective consciousness of law enforcement in order to determine whether a 'reasonable officer' would have been moved to act upon [a] traffic violation. Whren, 517 U.S. at 815, 116 S.Ct. 1769. However, the Court held only that where police have probable cause to believe a driver has violated the traffic code, they may stop that driver. See id. at 819, 116 S.Ct. 1769. Not incidentally, one of the arresting officers in Whren testified that he had no intent to issue a ticket based on the driver's observed traffic violation. United States v. Whren, 53 F.3d 371, 373 (D.C.Cir.1995), aff'd, 517 U.S. 806, 116 S.Ct. 1769, 135 L.Ed.2d 89 (1996). 16 A fair reading of Whren and other car stop cases leads to the conclusion that an observed traffic violation legitimates a stop even if the detectives do not rely on the traffic violation. 2 First, the Supreme Court did not premise its holding in Whren on a finding that a traffic violation even partially motivated the searching officers. Second, Whren and other Fourth Amendment cases require that we judge the reasonableness of an officer's actions based on the objective circumstances surrounding her actions and not on her subjective intent. See Whren, 517 U.S. at 814, 116 S.Ct. 1769; see also Ohio v. Robinette, 519 U.S. 33, 117 S.Ct. 417, 420-21, 136 L.Ed.2d 347 (1996); Scott v. United States, 436 U.S. 128, 138, 98 S.Ct. 1717, 56 L.Ed.2d 168 (1978). Therefore, regardless of the subjective intent of Quinn and Pia, we must reverse Judge Korman's suppression order because he found that the officers observed a traffic violation, an objective circumstance that justifies a traffic stop. See Scott, 436 U.S. at 138, 98 S.Ct. 1717. (stating that the fact that the officer does not have the state of mind which is hypothecated by the reasons which provide the legal justification for the officer's action does not invalidate the action taken as long as the circumstances, viewed objectively, justify that action). 17 We also reject Dhinsa's argument--based on Knowles--that the officers' failure to ticket him demonstrates that the stop was unconstitutional. In Knowles, the Supreme Court considered whether officers who had probable cause to arrest an individual for a traffic violation but instead issued a citation could conduct a search of the individual's car without probable cause. See Knowles, 119 S.Ct. at 486-87. Although the Supreme Court previously had held that an officer can conduct a search incident-to-arrest without probable cause, it determined that an officer who issues a citation for a traffic violation cannot conduct a search without probable cause even if the officer could have arrested the driver for the traffic violation. See id. at 486-87. Knowles has no application to the July 1 stop because (1) an officer cannot make a traffic stop without probable cause or reasonable suspicion to believe the driver committed a traffic violation, see, e.g., Scopo, 19 F.3d at 781; (2) Quinn and Pia had probable cause to make the stop; and (3) the government does not seek to introduce evidence found in searches conducted after the stop. 18 Finally, Dhinsa urges that we reject the district court's finding that Quinn and Pia observed a traffic violation because the court found that both detectives lied about certain aspects of the car stop and that Quinn lied about other matters in issue at the suppression hearing. The district court found that the detectives deliberately lied when they initially testified that Dhinsa's car was only one-half block from the residence of the man he allegedly threatened. However, the court also noted that [t]he fact that they may have testified in a way that I don't find credible about certain matters does not necessarily mean that every aspect of their testimony is not to be believed. The court then found that the detectives' testimony concerning the traffic violation was credible especially because the detectives openly admitted that they did not stop Dhinsa because of the traffic violation. We see no clear error in this factual finding. 19 Because the traffic violation that Quinn and Pia observed objectively justified their stop of Dhinsa's car, see Scopo, 19 F.3d at 781, and there was no clear error in the district court's factual finding that the violation occurred, we reverse the order suppressing the results of the July 1 stop.