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It's hard to believe more traffic stops in Pennsylvania haven't been challenged because of a section of state traffic law stating license plates can't be "obscured in any manner."
A plain reading of the law means tens of thousands of drivers in the state are driving vehicles with license plates that are illegal. And a plain reading is exactly how Pennsylvania Superior Court justices read the law when they upheld charges against in a Philadelphia traffic stop for an obstructed license plate that resulted in the seizure of a gun and several rounds of ammunition. Some will look at the decision as giving police another tool to deal with crime by giving police a reason to stop suspicious vehicles.
The frank matter is the existing state law has always been ripe to be abused, even in cases in which the obstructed license plate traffic stop ends up taking guns off of the streets, as happened in the traffic stop at the heart of Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Derrick Ruffin. A loaded weapon and ammunition were found in the possession of a passenger riding in the vehicle at the time.
The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees equal protection of the laws. But the Superior Court's ruling likely doesn't pass constitutional muster. As Sen. Scott Martin, R-Strasburg, noted in a recent legislative memorandum, a quick scan of a parking lot reveals dozens of license plate holders that could be a pretext for a traffic stop for an obstructed license plate. We're certain not all of those drivers were pulled over -- because the law as written is unenforceable under a plain text reading of the law. All police would do is write tickets for obstructed license plates.
We're concerned with the bigger issue here. The logic used to allow charges against Derrick Ruffin to stand flies in the face of the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause for the reasons Martin noted. The court's reading would automatically call into question the reasons why one person is charged unde the obstructed license plate statue while another person drives away.
That's not equal protection of the laws. And equal protection and enforcement should be what Martin pursues as he seeks to change state law.