State v. Butler

ANDERSON, Judge

(concurring in result only):

Although this case presents a difficult and troubling conundrum in regard to the enforcement of registration and licensing laws in South Carolina, I am persuaded by the logic and analysis of the en banc opinion of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in United States v. Wilson, 205 F.3d 720 (4th Cir. 2000). Wilson enunciates:

The government argues that South Carolina law authorizes the police to stop any car with temporary tags to determine whether the owner is in compliance with the state’s requirement that permanent tags be obtained within thirty days of purchase. The government, however, cannot point to any statute, regulation, or court decision from South Carolina that authorizes such an investigatory stop. The government relies solely on our conclusory statement in United States v. McDonald, 61 F.3d 248, 254 (4th Cir.1995), that under South Carolina law the presence of temporary tags on a car “entitle[s] [police] to conduct an investigatory stop in order to determine whether the car’s owner [is] in violation of state law requiring permanent tags within thirty days of a vehicle’s purchase.” The problem with McDonald is that it cited no authority for the purported statement of South Carolina law (for that matter, neither did the United States cite any authority when it briefed that case). We have made an independent search, and we find nothing in South Carolina’s law to support the statement in McDonald. At this point, we can only conclude that McDonald misstated the law of South Carolina. Of course, any state law that authorized a search or seizure would be subject to the requirements of the Fourth Amendment. See United States v. Manbeck, 744 F.2d 360, 382 (4th Cir.1984) (holding that statute authorizing customs officials to board vessels “must be interpreted in a manner consistent with limitations imposed by the Fourth Amendment”).

The Fourth Amendment does not allow a policeman to stop a car just because it has temporary tags.....

Wilson, 205 F.3d at 724 (footnote omitted).

The reasoning in Wilson succinctly identifies the constitutional limitation imposed by the Fourth Amendment in this factual scenario.