The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals reviewed claims that the Kansas Highway Patrol routinely stopped and searched out-of-state drivers, especially those traveling to or from Colorado, without proper legal justification.
In Shaw v. Smith, the Court agreed that relying on a driver’s state of origin, travel route or travel to Colorado to justify extending traffic stops violates the Fourth Amendment. It also held drivers had standing to seek injunctive relief but narrowed the lower court’s order, requiring retraining rather than broad federal oversight, and declined to restrict Kansas’ “Two-Step” post-stop questioning practices.
The ruling reinforces out-of-state travel alone is not reasonable suspicion, while setting limits on how aggressively federal courts can supervise state-policing practices.
The full published opinion is available at ca10.uscourts.gov/sites/ca10/files/opinions/010111377962.pdf.