SOUTH JERSEY (KYW Newsradio) — The New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled police cannot pull a driver over just because a small part of their license plate is covered by a frame.
The ruling looked at two cases for two men pulled over in South Jersey, resulting in very different outcomes.
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One man, Miguel Roman-Rosado, had a small part of “Garden State” covered on his license plate, but it was still easy to read. Another man, Darius Carter, had the words completely covered.
In his ruling, Chief Justice Stuart Rabner said there is no violation if the partially covered words and letters are still legible. He said police should not have pulled over Roman-Rosado, and the gun found in his car cannot be used as evidence against him.
It’s a different story for Carter, though. The judge ruled his stop was legal, and his 10-year sentence for the heroin and cocaine found in his car was upheld.
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Rabner also wrote license plate covers that advertise dealerships often cover a small portion of plates, so hundreds of thousands of people would be in violation the moment they drive off the lot, which he said is an absurd interpretation of the law.
The ACLU said this is an important moment for racial and civil rights in New Jersey because these stops often have a disproportionate impact on people of color.