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05/14/04 "See News Release 043 for any concurrences and/or dissents."

SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA No. 04-KK-0273 STATE OF LOUISIANA v. SEAN STRANGE, TALBERT PORTER On Writ of Certiorari to the Third Circuit Court of Appeal

PER CURIAM: The state's application is hereby granted, the rulings of the courts below suppressing evidence seized from defendants are reversed, and this case is remanded to the district court for further proceedings. The evidence adduced at the hearing on defendants' motion to suppress established that on November 19, 2002, a Thunderbird traveling east on Interstate 10 through St. Martin Parish caught the attention of State Trooper Troy Dupuis because the vehicle had both a regular or "hard" license plate located in its customary position near the rear bumper of the car and a paper or temporary tag displayed in the back window. Both tags were from Texas. Aware of Louisiana law requiring that the owner of a vehicle must remove any temporary tags once he receives a hard copy of his license plate, Trooper Dupuis decided to stop the Thunderbird to determine "which plate was the real plate" and to check the registration "to see if it wasn't stolen" or whether the plates had been switched.

After pulling the vehicle over, the trooper explained the reason for the stop, determined that the driver, Talbert Porter, had no license on him and that the passenger, Sean Strange, was in fact the owner of the vehicle. A check of the papers produced by defendant Strange, including a bill of sale from a car dealer in Fort Worth, Texas, satisfied the trooper that Strange had recently purchased the vehicle in Texas and was driving on a temporary tag while waiting for his registration in his own name. Strange had, in fact, insured the vehicle on the day before the officer pulled the car over in Louisiana. The paper work thus "show[ed] that [the vehicle] was not stolen" and that its plates had not been switched. Strange explained to the trooper on the scene, as he would later to the court during the hearing on the motion to suppress, that Texas would eventually issue a registration sticker to be placed on the front windshield near the inspection sticker as a replacement for the temporary tag issued by the car dealer. He further explained that in Texas, license plates do not change with the owner, "[t]he owners change with [the plates]." In the course of checking the paper work, the trooper also asked defendants about their travel plans, and obtained largely consistent accounts that they were traveling from Texas to Florida to see Strange's aunt in Tallahassee. However, the trooper noted that the defendants had embarked on a cross country trip without a clear idea of where the aunt lived in Tallahassee and that defendant Strange, rather than becoming less nervous as the traffic stop proceeded, became increasingly agitated. His suspicions aroused, Trooper Dupuis asked for, and received, Strange's consent to search the vehicle. In the course of the ensuing search, the trooper discovered 60 pounds of marijuana hidden behind the Thunderbird's rear bumper. The trooper immediately placed

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the defendants under arrest, and in a search incident to the arrests discovered small amounts of cocaine and meth-amphetamine concealed in defendant Strange's wallet. The state subsequently charged the defendants with a variety of offenses arising out of the stop including possession of marijuana with intent to distribute in violation of La.R.S. 40:966. On the basis of the testimony provided by Trooper Dupuis and the defendants at the evidentiary hearing conducted in May, 2003, the trial court, satisfied that Texas law permitted a vehicle registered in that state to display both a hard license plate and a temporary tag, and that Louisiana permits vehicles properly registered in other jurisdictions to travel on the roads of this state without complying with this state's registration requirements, granted respondents' motion to suppress. The court thus took the position that "[i]f the plates were properly displayed under Texas law, then [Trooper Dupuis] didn't have any reasonable suspicion to stop them." The court of appeal agreed. State v. Strange, 03-0901 (La. App. 3rd Cir. 12/30/03)(unpub'd)(Saunders, J., dissenting). The court acknowledged that as a matter of Louisiana law, a vehicle may not display both a hard license plate and a dealer's temporary tag. See La.R.S. 47:519(G). Under certain circumstances, failure of a vehicle owner to destroy the temporary tag on receipt of annual plates constitutes a one-year misdemeanor offense. La.R.S. 47:519(J). However, the court of appeal further noted that "Louisiana also has reciprocity arrangements with other states, which permit vehicles owned by out-of-state residents and lawfully registered in those states to legally travel upon Louisiana's public highways without being registered here." Strange, 03-0901 at 5 (citing La.R.S. 47:511).1 The court thus
The statute provides that "[a] vehicle owned by a resident of another state, which is lawfully registered in that state, may be operated upon the public highways of
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reasoned that while "it is a violation of Louisiana law for a Louisiana-registered vehicle to display both the temporary and permanent tags at the same time . . . there is no violation of Louisiana law when a vehicle registered in another state displays both at the same time if that state allows such a display." Id. Given that premise, the court of appeal affirmed the ruling of the trial court on grounds that "the trooper's subjective mistaken belief that the display violated Louisiana vehicle registration laws and any 'hunch' based thereon were not sufficient to establish a reasonable basis or a reasonable cause for the traffic stop." Id., at 56. In dissent, Saunders, J., argued that "[a]lthough subsequent research revealed that the vehicle was properly registered in Texas, it is unrealistic to expect Louisiana State Troopers, or any other peace officer of the State of Louisiana to be versed in the vehicle registration laws of the other forty-nine states." Strange, 03-0901 at 6 (Saunders, J., dissenting). In his view, the vehicle's display of a hard license plate and temporary tag constituted the "'particularized and objective basis'" required for a lawful investigatory stop which then led to the discovery of the marijuana concealed in the car after defendant gave his consent to search the vehicle. Id., at 6 (quoting United States v. Cortez, 449 U.S. 411, 417, 101 S.Ct. 690, 695, 66 L.Ed.2d 621 (1981). We agree with Judge Saunders that the pertinent question in the present case is not whether defendant Strange had taken all of the appropriate steps to register the Thunderbird in his name in Texas under the laws of that state after
this state without registration or license, when, by statute, contract, or understanding, an agreement between the proper authorities of such state and the secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections has effected reciprocal arrangements whereby license plates of each state affected thereby are recognized by each other states, respectively, and when the vehicle bears approved license places of such state, if same are required by the laws of that state." R.S. 47:511(A).
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he purchased the vehicle, and had in the interim displayed on the vehicle the license tags required by Texas law,2 but whether Trooper Dupuis's conduct was reasonable as a matter of the Fourth Amendment and La. Const. art. I,

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