Break out the small fuzzy dice, pine tree air fresheners, Mardi Gras beads and graduation tassels, The Associated Press reports.
Hanging an object from a car’s rearview mirror is acceptable under Connecticut law as long as it doesn’t distract the driver or impede the view, a divided state Supreme Court ruled in a decision released Monday.
The 4-3 decision upholds rulings of the state Appeals Court and a Superior Court, both of which sided with Gregory Cyrus, who was pulled over in Danielson in 2006 when a trooper spotted a cross hanging from a beaded chain on his rearview mirror.
Cyrus was charged with drunken driving and driving without a license, but the courts threw out the charges after ruling the alleged evidence was inadmissible because he never should have been pulled over.
The trooper never testified that the 1 3/4-inch-tall cross and its 10-inch chain seemed to be blocking Cyrus’ vision or distracting him, and it was so small in relation to the entire windshield that it couldn’t have swung into Cyrus’ line of vision, the judges wrote.
Pulling him over just for having the item on his mirror wasn’t legal, and hypothesizing that it could pose a hazard wouldn’t have been enough without showing why, the court said.
The three justices who dissented from the majority view said the trooper could have reasonably suspected the hanging cross distracted or blocked Cyrus’ view in violation of state law, and that the officer had the legal right to stop him to investigate that.
A telephone number for Cyrus could not immediately be located, and a message seeking comment was left for his public defender.
Courts in Massachusetts, Florida, Colorado and elsewhere have made similar rulings based on language in their state laws that bar items that distract or block a driver’s view, but don’t prohibit all items outright.
Some other states, including Minnesota, specifically say in their laws that nothing can hang from a driver’s rearview mirror. In South Dakota, the law specifically bars “any object or gadget dangling between the view of the driver and the windshield of the vehicle.”
A 1968 federal ruling known as Terry v. Ohio governs how and why police can stop vehicles.
