Case Summaries - North Carolina Supreme Court (April 3, 2020) and United States Supreme Court (April 6 & March 23, 2020)

This post summarizes the published criminal cases from the North Carolina Supreme Court issued on April 3, 2020, and two decisions from the United States Supreme Court issued on April 6 and March 23, 2020. Thanks to John Rubin and Chris Tyner for preparing the U.S. Supreme Court summaries. Given the commonsense inference that vehicles likely are being driven by their owners, an officer’s knowledge that the registered owner of a vehicle has a revoked driver’s license provides reasonable suspicion for a traffic stop in the absence of information negating the inference that the owner is the driver. Kansas v. Glover, 589 U.S. ___ (Apr. 6, 2020) In this Kansas driving with a revoked license case, the Court held that when a police officer knows that the registered owner of a vehicle has a revoked driver’s license and lacks information negating an inference that the owner is the driver of the vehicle, a traffic stop is supported by reasonable suspicion and does not violate the Fourth Amendment.  Recognizing that persons other than the registered owner sometimes may be lawfully driving, the Court said that knowledge of a registered owner’s revoked license “provided more than reasonable suspicion to initiate [a] stop” based on the “commonsense inference” that, in the absence of negating information, vehicles likely are being driven by their registered owners.  The Court emphasized the narrow scope of its holding, saying that the presence of additional facts may dispel reasonable suspicion and offering the example of a situation where an officer [...]