Facts
- Deputy Mark Mehrer of Douglas County, Kansas, observed a 1995 Chevrolet 1500 pickup truck while on routine patrol.
- Mehrer did not see the truck commit any traffic violations or engage in suspicious conduct.
- Mehrer ran the truck’s license plate through the Kansas Department of Revenue file service.
- The records showed the truck was registered to Charles Glover Jr. and that Glover’s Kansas driver’s license had been revoked.
- Mehrer did not attempt to identify the driver before making the stop.
- Relying on the inference that the vehicle’s registered owner was likely the driver, Mehrer initiated an investigative traffic stop.
- Glover was driving the truck at the time of the stop.
- Kansas charged Glover with driving as a habitual violator under Kan. Stat. Ann. § 8-285(a)(3).
- On stipulated facts, the Kansas trial court granted Glover’s motion to suppress, concluding the stop lacked reasonable suspicion.
- The Kansas Court of Appeals reversed, holding it was reasonable for Mehrer to infer the owner was driving.
- The Kansas Supreme Court reversed and reinstated suppression, characterizing the inference as a hunch insufficient for reasonable suspicion.
- The U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari.
Issues
- Whether the Fourth Amendment permits an officer to initiate an investigative traffic stop after running a vehicle’s license plate and learning the registered owner’s driver’s license is revoked, when the officer has no information suggesting the owner is not the driver.
Decision
- The U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Kansas Supreme Court and remanded.
- The Court held (8–1) that, when an officer lacks information negating the inference that the registered owner is driving, a stop based on a plate check showing the owner’s license is revoked is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment.
- The Court reasoned that reasonable suspicion is a commonsense, probability-based standard and does not require the officer to rule out innocent explanations or gather additional confirming evidence before the stop.
- Concurrence: Justice Kagan (joined by Justice Ginsburg) agreed with the result and stressed the narrowness of the holding, tied to ordinary probabilities and the absence of contrary information.
- Dissent: Justice Sotomayor would have required more individualized facts connecting the driver to wrongdoing and warned that the rule allows stops based on minimal suspicion.
Legal Principles
- An investigative traffic stop is permitted when an officer has a particularized and objective basis to suspect the person stopped is breaking the law.
- Reasonable suspicion is less demanding than probable cause and may rest on reasonable inferences and probabilities drawn from the facts known to the officer.
- Officers may infer, as a matter of common experience, that a vehicle’s registered owner is likely the vehicle’s driver.
- When a plate check links a vehicle to a registered owner whose license is revoked, that inference can supply reasonable suspicion to stop the vehicle unless the officer has facts that cut against the inference (such as information or observations indicating the driver is not the owner).
- The reasonable-suspicion inquiry looks to the totality of the circumstances, including both the database information and any observations that would make the owner-as-driver inference unreasonable.
Conclusion
Kansas v. Glover holds that the Fourth Amendment allows a brief investigative stop when an officer runs a plate, learns the registered owner’s license is revoked, and has no specific information suggesting the owner is not driving; the owner-as-driver inference, combined with the revocation, provides reasonable suspicion.