USA - Supreme Court rules 8-1 that cops can pull you over for the wrong reason

OFF THE WIRE
The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that a police officer can make a traffic stop for the wrong reason so long as they have a �reasonable� understanding of the law they are enforcing, NBC News reported on Monday.
�To be reasonable is not to be perfect,� Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the court�s 8-1 decision. �And so the Fourth Amendment allows for some mistakes on the part of government officials, giving them �fair leeway for enforcing the law in the community�s protection.��
The case concerned the 2009 arrest of Nicholas Heien near Dobson, North Carolina. Sgt. Matt Darisse pulled Heien over for having only one working brake light, then found a bag of cocaine while searching his vehicle and charged him with attempted drug trafficking. However, the state only requires motorists to have one brake light working at any time. Heien�s attorneys argued that this made Darisse�s search unlawful.
Roberts wrote that the ruling �does not discourage officers from learning the law,� because the Fourth Amendment only covers �objectively reasonable� errors from police.
Justices Elena Kagan and Ruth Bader Ginsburg filed separate concurring opinions. Justice Sonia Sotomayor filed the only dissent, arguing that the ruling meant �further eroding the Fourth Amendment�s protection of civil liberties� at a time when that protection has already been deteriorated.
�One wonders how a citizen seeking to be law-abiding and to structure his or her behavior to avoid these invasive, frightening, and humiliating encounters could do so,� Sotomayor wrote. �In addition to these human consequences�including those for communities and for their relationships with the police�permitting mistakes of law to justify seizures has the perverse effect of preventing or delaying the clarification of the law.�
Watch NBC News� report, as posted online on Monday, below.

[h/t Gawker]