United States Ninth Circuit

District court's grant of defendant's motion to suppress evidence of illegal drugs and a firearm found in a search of his car following a traffic stop is vacated, where applying Rodriguez v. US, 135 S. Ct. 1609 (2015), by conducting an ex-felon registration check and a dog sniff, both of which were unrelated to the traffic violation for which defendant was stopped, the officer prolonged the traffic stop beyond the time reasonably required to complete his traffic mission, and violated the Fourth Amendment, unless there was independent reasonable suspicion justifying each prolongation. Remanded to consideration of whether the officer's prolongation of the stop was supported by independent reasonable suspicion.

Appellate Information

• Decided 05/20/2015
• Published 05/20/2015

Judges

• Berzon

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel