Opinion ID: 3008597
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Seizure of Passengers during a Traffic Stop

Text: The first question this Court must address is whether the Appellant, as a passenger in the car, was seized and thus could properly challenge his detention under the Fourth Amendment. The proper inquiry is to ask whether a reasonable person in [the passenger's] position when the car stopped would have believed himself free to `terminate the encounter' between the police and himself. Brendlin v. California, 127 S.Ct. 2400, 2406 (2007) (quoting Florida v . Bostick, 501 U .S . 429, 436 (1991)) . As in Brendlin , in this case any reasonable passenger would have understood the police officers to be exercising control to the point that no one in the car was free to depart without police permission . Id. at 2406-07 . This makes sense, because even when the wrongdoing is only bad driving, the passenger will expect to be subject to some scrutiny, and his attempt to leave the scene would be so obviously likely to prompt an objection from the officer that no passenger would feel free to leave in the first place. Id. at 2407 . `If either the stopping of the car, the length of the passenger's detention thereafter, or the passenger's removal from it are unreasonable in a Fourth Amendment sense, then surely the passenger has standing to object to those constitutional violations and to have suppressed any evidence found in the car which is their fruit.' Id . at 2408 (quoting 6 Wayne R. LaFave, Search and Seizure : A Treatise on the Fourth Amendment § 11 .3(e), at 194-95 (4th ed . 2004 and Supp . 2007)) . The Appellant was seized from the moment [the driver's] car came to a halt on the side of the road, id . at 2410, and he therefore has standing to challenge the stop as an alleged violation of the Fourth Amendment. See also Commonwealth v. Morgan , 248 S .W .3d 538, 540 n. l (Ky. 2008) (As a preliminary matter, we note that even though Morgan was only a passenger in the car, she nonetheless has standing to challenge the legality of the initial stop of the vehicle .) .