The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a decision by Judge Michael Savage of Sacramento County. In People v. Hernandez, 21 CA3rd 445, the court stated that the defendant was stopped unlawfully by Deputy Paonessa of the Sacramento Sheriff’s department.

Deputy Paonessa testified that yeah he saw the temporary registration tag on the defenant’s car but the “very often” those tags are forged. As we all know, this is not China and the poilce here in the good ole U S of A need “reasonable suspicion” to stop a car. That is we are protected by the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution to be FREE from unreasonable searched and seizures.

So, here we have a cop who sees a temporary tag displayed BUT feel like hey, this could be a forgery becasue they “very often” are! Well, the Ninth Circuit says whoa there buddy not so fast. I love it - the court says “We are unwilling to conclude it is always reasonable to stop a car that does not have any license plates but has a temporary operating permit, because that would effectively mean it is always reasonable to suspect that a temporary operating permit is invalid.”

So, sigh of relief, the Fourth Amendment prevails!!