United States Second Circuit

Reasonable suspicion of a traffic violation provides a sufficient basis under the Fourth Amendment for law enforcement officers to make a traffic stop. In a prosecution for being a felon in possession of a firearm, grant of defendant's motion to suppress evidence seized pursuant to a traffic stop is vacated and remanded where the district court erred by requiring police officers in this case to justify their traffic stop by demonstrating either probable cause to believe that a traffic violation had occurred or reasonable suspicion of a crime more serious than a traffic violation.

Appellate Information

• Decided 01/08/2009
• Published 01/08/2009

Judges

• JOSÉ A. CABRANES, Circuit Judge:, Before:  WINTER, MINER, and CABRANES, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Second Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• David A. O'Neil, Assistant United States Attorney (Michael J. Garcia, United States Attorney, on the brief, Katherine Polk Failla, Assistant United States Attorney, of counsel), United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, New York, NY, for Appellant United States of America.


• For Appellees:
  
• Edward S. Zas, Federal Defenders of New York, Inc., New York, NY, for Defendant-Appellee Brett Stewart.