Credit: (NJ Spotlight News)
File photo: Chief Justice Stuart Rabner wrote that if a phrase like “Garden State” is partly covered but still recognizable, there is no violation of the statute.
Drivers in cars with partially covered license plates cannot be stopped by police if the markings on the tag are still legible, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled Monday, a decision hailed by advocates.
“By placing limits on this long-standing practice, New Jersey is beginning to remove the veil that has acted as a legal justification for pretextual policing and instead prioritize the rights of people,’’ said Karen Thompson, a senior staff attorney at the New Jersey chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which argued as a friend of the court on behalf of defendants in the case. “Prioritizing rights over manufactured ‘reasonableness’ creates real opportunities to hold police accountable and to stop the use of ambiguously broad laws as a way to excuse racialized policing.
Asbury Park Press
The state Supreme Court, in a ruling heralded by civil libertarians as a check on law enforcement power, ruled Monday that police cannot pull over a motorist merely because their license plate bracket or plateholder slightly obscures the vehicle s tag.
The high court said in its unanimous decision that it wasn t enough that the bracket partially obscures information on the tag to warrant a stop. The plateholder has to render the pertinent information a letter, number or state name unrecognizable for such a traffic stop to be lawful.
The ruling limits what civil libertarians have long complained are illegal pretextual stops stops made for negligible or no good reason in order to justify questioning the motorist. Such stops give police the chance to make unrelated inquiries, such as why the motorist is in the neighborhood or if drugs or weapons are in the vehicle.