Thursday, July 21st, 2005

Stop near Canadian Border Upheld; Reasonable Suspicion Found

United States v. Avtar Singh, Docket No. 04-3324-cr (2d Cir. July 19, 2005) (Walker, Cardamone, Jacobs) (Op. by Cardamone): This opinion breaks no new ground. It simply applies a well-established rule — that vehicle stops by roving patrols near an international border must be justified under the familiar “reasonable suspicion” standard, see, e.g., United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 873, 881-82 (1975) — to a particular stop near the Canadian border. Those interested in the details can consult the opinion; suffice it to say that even to this defense-minded reader, the reasonable suspicion standard appears readily satisfied.

The opinion is otherwise of note only because it contains a folksy little map of the relevant geographic area (op. at 4), as well as a totally gratuitous mention of “the October 11, 1776 Battle of Valcour Island between the colonial Navy under General Benedict Arnold and a British squadron under General Sir Guy Carleton. See Harris Bird, Navies in the Mountains: The Battles on the Waters of Lake Champlain and Lake George, 1609-1814 196-213 (1962).” (Op. at 3). How very Judge Cardamone!

Posted by
Categories: Uncategorized
Comments are closed.