A federal court in Denver made a major privacy ruling late last month for citizens who live in states where marijuana is legal.
The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals blasted police for profiling drivers whose tags were from places like Washington, Oregon, and Colorado.
The case was brought against two officers in Kansas, who stopped Peter Vasquez under suspicion of transporting illegal substances and searched his car, simply because he was from Colorado.
The court found his Fourth Amendment rights were grossly violated, and that police can no longer use this tactic.
Currently, twenty-five states permit marijuana use for medical purposes, with Colorado, Alaska, Oregon, Washington, and Washington, D.C. permitting some recreational use under state law. Thus, the Officer’s reasoning would justify the search and seizure of the citizens of more than half of the states in our country. It is wholly improper to assume that an individual is more likely to be engaged in criminal conduct because of his state of residence, and thus any fact that would inculpate every resident of a state cannot support reasonable suspicion. Accordingly, it is time to abandon the pretense that state citizenship is a permissible basis upon which to justify the detention and search of out-of-state motorists, and time to stop the practice of detention of motorists for nothing more than an out-of-state license plate.
Boom. Roasted.
So smuggle drugs with impunity, Bros (don’t do this).
[Via Boing Boing]