Massachusetts Appeals Court· 4/7/1998

Commonwealth v. Alvarez

Citations

44 Mass. App. Ct. 531
692 N.E.2d 106
1998 Mass. App. LEXIS 199

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

holding that obtaining identification of a passenger in a routine traffic stop when there was no reasonable suspicion that the passenger was engaged in criminal activity is unlawful and “uncomfortably associated with authoritarian societies”
holding that an officer, who testified that he asked the defendant, a vehicle passenger, for his license out of “routine practice” and without any objective basis for suspecting the passenger of wrongdoing, violated the Massachusetts Constitution
during routine stop for traffic violation, officer may not ask for passenger’s identification as matter of “routine practice”
reaffirming prior caselaw that police must have a reasonable and articulable suspicion before demanding identification from passengers
noting the absence of any testimony by the officer that he had reason to fear for his safety or that the passenger was in need of some assistance
defendants entitled to suppression of fruits of search when unlawful interrogation of passenger led to the search that produced cache of cocaine secreted in vehicle

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Judges: Kass

Read full opinion on CourtListener

Cited by

20 cases in this archive cite this case.

Cites

16 cases in this archive are cited by this case.

Other cases with this name

Sourced from CourtListener / Free Law Project (CC0).

This is legal information, not legal advice. Laws vary by jurisdiction and change frequently. Always verify current law with official sources and consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for advice on your specific situation.