CA8: If male owner of vehicle has suspended DL, officer isn’t required to ID driver’s gender before stop

The officer here ran an LPN check and determined that the owner of the vehicle, a man, had a suspended DL. A woman was driving, but the officer could see that from the rear. “Given the road and weather conditions, the Fourth Amendment did not require that Naaktgeboren affirmatively identify the sex of the driver or further investigate the driver’s physical appearance before initiating a traffic stop. Thus, Naaktgeboren had an articulable and objectively reasonable suspicion that a motorist without a valid license was driving the vehicle, and his decision to initiate a traffic stop did not violate the Fourth Amendment.” United States v. Chartier, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 22323 (8th Cir. November 26, 2014).

While the brake light had multiple bulbs in it, the officer reasonably believed [so says the appellate court] that one of the bulbs was out, and that was enough for a stop. The video didn’t corroborate to dispute it. State v. Williams, 2014 Iowa App. LEXIS 1149 (November 26, 2014).*