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Heien v. North Carolina
The One Good Brake Light
The facts
On April 29, 2009, a sergeant with the North Carolina Highway Patrol was driving on Interstate 77 near Dobson when he began following a Ford Escort, finding the driver stiff and nervous. As the car slowed for a truck ahead, the sergeant saw that only one of its two rear brake lights lit up. He pulled the car over and found the driver behind the wheel and the Defendant stretched across the back seat. North Carolina's vehicle code required a working stop lamp visible from the rear, and a separate section required all originally equipped rear lamps to be in good working order, though courts had not settled whether a car with two brake lights needed both illuminated. After issuing the driver a warning ticket, the sergeant grew suspicious of the men's nervousness and their conflicting stories about their destination, and asked to search the car. The Defendant consented, and officers found a bag of cocaine inside a duffel bag. Both men were arrested, and the dispute centered on whether the sergeant's understanding of the brake-light law was correct when he stopped the car.
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