OCTOBER TERM, 2000
Per Curiam
on petition for writ of certiorari to the supreme court of arkansas
No. 00-262. Decided May 29, 2001
When the Arkansas police officer who stopped respondent Sullivan for speeding and improper window tinting remembered intelligence on Sullivan regarding narcotics, he arrested Sullivan for traffic violations and carrying a weapon and, during an inventory search of the vehicle, discovered a bag of drugs and drug-related materials. Sullivan was charged with, inter alia, various state-law drug offenses. The trial court granted Sullivan's motion to suppress the evidence seized from his vehicle on the basis that his arrest was a pretext to search him and therefore violated the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. After affirming, the Arkansas Supreme Court denied the State's rehearing petition, rejecting the State's argument that the court took into account the officer's subjective motivation in disregard of Whren v. United States, 517 U. S. 806, and holding that, even if Whren precludes inquiry into an arresting officer's subjective motivation, that court could interpret the United States Constitution more broadly than this Court.
Held: The State Supreme Court's decision on rehearing is flatly contrary to this Court's controlling precedent. Its decision that the drug-related evidence should be suppressed because the police officer had an improper subjective motivation for making the stop cannot be squared with this Court's holding in Whren, supra, at 813, that "[s]ubjective intentions play no role in ordinary, probable-cause Fourth Amendment analysis." The State Supreme Court's alternative holding, that it may interpret the Federal Constitution to provide greater protection than this Court's own precedents provide, is foreclosed by Oregon v. Hass, 420 U. S. 714.
Certiorari granted; 340 Ark. 315, 11 S. W. 3d 526, and 340 Ark. 318-A, 16 S. W. 3d 551, reversed and remanded.
Per Curiam.
In November 1998, Officer Joe Taylor of the Conway, Arkansas, Police Department stopped respondent Sullivan for speeding and for having an improperly tinted wind-shield. Taylor approached Sullivan's vehicle, explained the reason for the stop, and requested Sullivan's license, regis-
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