Ancient Driving History Did Not Support Stop; Error to Enhance Sentence for Altered Serial Number on Gun.

U.S. v. Laughrin, 2006 WL 497634 (3/2/06) - The 10th holds it was a violation of the 4th Amendment for an officer to stop a car when the officer had not seen any traffic violation. The court had held it was okay to stop the car because the officer knew the defendant's driving record, which included 22 weeks earlier a driving with suspended license citation and other such violations before then. The officer assumed the defendant still did not have a license, but he actually did. The 10th (Judge Hartz) waxes eloquent on the principle that it is not enough reason to stop somebody just because the person has a prior criminal record. The 10th suggested that perhaps its ruling would be different if the defendant's prior suspended license violation had been more recent or the officer knew that the length of suspension covered the time when he stopped the defendant.

The 10th held the district court erred when it enhanced the defendant's sentence under § 2K2.1(b)(4) that requires a 2 offense level increase if the firearm involved had an altered or obliterated serial number. The defendant's firearm [not the one illegally found by virtue of the stop] was manufactured before the year serial numbers were required by law and so it had no serial number to be altered or obliterated. The plain language of the guideline requires this result and the Commission's failure to change that language over the years, despite amending other parts of § 2K2.1, shows it was content with the judicial interpretation the courts had given to it.