State v. Darius J. Carter (083211) (Burlington & Gloucester County & Statewide)

Summary

The New Jersey Supreme Court narrowly interpreted N.J.S.A. 39:3-33 to require that all license‑plate markings be legible or identifiable, holding that a frame that fully obscures a marking violates the statute while a frame that only partially covers a slogan but leaves it readable does not. Accordingly, the stop of Darius Carter was lawful, but the stop of Miguel Roman‑Rosado was unlawful and the seized handgun must be suppressed, as the Court declined to adopt the Heien reasonable‑mistake‑of‑law doctrine under the state constitution.