Opinion ID: 167519
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Scope and D uration of the Traffic Stop

Text: A traffic stop is a seizure for Fourth Amendment purposes, and must be justified by reasonable articulable suspicion under the standards set forth in Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968). United States v. Hunnicutt, 135 F.3d 1345, 1348 (10th Cir. 1998). Under our case law, a traffic stop is reasonable if (1) “‘the officer’s action was justified at its inception,’” and (2) the officer’s action “‘was reasonably related in scope to the circumstances which justified the interference in the first place.’” United States v. Botero-Ospina, 71 F.3d 783, 786 (10th Cir. 1995) (en banc) (quoting Terry, 392 U.S. at 20). In this case, M s. ConcepcionLedesma concedes that Trooper Ranieri’s actions were justified at their inception. He could not see any licence plate or temporary registration anywhere on the rear of the vehicle, an apparent violation of Kansas law. See Kan. Stat. Ann. § 8-133; see also Botero-Ospina, 71 F.3d at 787 (holding that “a traffic stop is valid under the Fourth Amendment if the stop is based on an observed traffic violation or if the police officer has reasonable articulable suspicion that a traffic or equipment violation has occurred or is occurring”). She argues instead that the traffic stop exceeded the permissible scope of the detention in light of its underlying justification. -8- In United States v. M cSwain, 29 F.3d 558, 561 (10th Cir. 1994), a Utah state trooper stopped the defendant’s vehicle “for the sole purpose of ensuring the validity of the vehicle’s temporary registration sticker.” W hile driving, the trooper found the registration tag difficult to read because the expiration date appeared to be covered with reflective tape. Id. at 560. As he approached the vehicle on foot, he verified that the registration tag was valid and not expired, and he observed no violation of state law. See id. W e held that the trooper’s decision to prolong the detention by requesting license and registration information and questioning the driver “exceeded the scope of the stop’s underlying justification” and therefore violated the Fourth Amendment. Id. at 561. By contrast, in United States v. DeGasso, 369 F.3d 1139 (10th Cir. 2004), a state trooper observed a continuing violation of state law after stopping a vehicle, and we upheld the ensuing detention. In DeGasso, an Oklahoma trooper pulled over a truck after observing that its rear license plate was mounted too low, obscuring the lettering at the bottom of the registration tag. Id. at 1141. An Oklahoma statute required all licence plates to be “clearly visible at all times,” 47 Okla. Stat. § 1113.A.2, and this Court predicted that Oklahoma courts w ould construe that requirement to apply equally to out-of-state drivers, see DeGasso, 369 F.3d at 1147 (noting “the common-sense proposition that police officers have no less need to identify out-of-state vehicles than they have to identify those in Oklahoma”). As a result, the case was “easily distinguishable” from M cSwain: -9- In M cSwain, the traffic stop was made in order to determine w hether a temporary registration sticker was valid; there was no requirement that it be visible or unobscured. In that case, when the officer approached the vehicle and found that the sticker was valid, the purpose for the stop was over. In this case, the violation was that the lettering on the license plate was not ‘clearly visible,’ which remained true even after the trooper approached the truck and was able, at that point, to read it. Id. at 1149. Recently we decided the constitutionality of a traffic stop based on the same Kansas statute at issue in this case. See United States v. Edgerton, 438 F.3d 1043, 1045 (10th Cir. 2006). Kansas law requires that “[e]very license plate shall at all times be securely fastened to the vehicle . . . in a place and position to be clearly visible, and shall be maintained free from foreign materials and in a condition to be clearly legible.” Kan. Stat. Ann. § 8-133. In Edgerton, Trooper Dean (coincidentally, the same officer who assisted Trooper Ranieri in this case) spotted a vehicle from Colorado on an interstate highway at 2:30 a.m. 438 F.3d at 1045. He could not read the vehicle’s temporary registration tag, which was posted in the rear window as required by Colorado law, not because of any obstruction but solely because “it was dark out.” Id. After stopping the vehicle and approaching on foot, Trooper Dean had no difficulty reading the tag and noted that it appeared valid. Id. Nevertheless, Trooper Dean inspected the undercarriage of the vehicle, issued a warning for a violation of § 8-133, questioned the driver, and eventually requested and received consent to search the - 10 - trunk. Id. at 1045–46. W e held that these actions exceeded the permissible scope of the detention in light of its underlying justification. Id. at 1051. The decision in Edgerton rested on the conclusion that § 8-133 does not criminalize a “wholly unremarkable” temporary registration simply because a vehicle is traveling at night. See id. Turning to the facts in this case, the van driven by M s. ConcepcionLedesma had “[e]xtremely dark” window tinting— so dark, in fact, that Trooper Ranieri could hardly make out the numbers on the temporary registration, even as he approached on foot from a distance of four or five feet. Appellee’s Supp. App. 26–27. Specifically, he could not read the name of the state that issued the tag, and he could not determine whether the numbers represented an expiration date. Trooper Ranieri thus observed a straightforward violation of § 8-133: rather than displaying her temporary tag “in a place and position to be clearly visible,” M s. Concepcion-Ledesma displayed it behind a plate of tinted glass that rendered it almost entirely illegible. That she appears to have complied with M ichigan law by following the printed instructions on the sticker does not render the detention unreasonable, both because state troopers cannot be expected to possess encyclopedic knowledge of the traffic regulations of other states, and because Kansas courts have held that “the display of an illegible or obscured vehicle tag is a violation of - 11 - K.S.A. 8-133 even if the vehicle is duly licensed in another state.” State v. Hayes, 660 P.2d 1387, 1389 (K an. Ct. App. 1983). Accordingly, the extended detention of M s. Concepcion-Ledesma did not violate the Fourth Amendment. Trooper Ranieri saw that M s. ConcepcionLedesma’s registration tag was displayed in an unlawful manner “even after [he] approached the [vehicle] and was able, at that point, to read it.” See D eGasso, 369 F.3d at 1149. It was therefore reasonable under the circumstances for Trooper Ranieri to issue a w ritten warning, verify M s. Concepcion-Ledesma’s license and registration information, and ask preliminary questions about travel plans. Hunnicutt, 135 F.3d at 1349; United States v. Hernandez, 93 F.3d 1493, 1499 (10th Cir. 1996).