“Terrible” Indiana Anti-Texting Law Does Not Justify Stops or Searches, Says Appeals Court

In Indiana it is illegal to read and send text messages or emails while driving, however all other uses of the phone are acceptable. This means that under Indiana law a driver may read an ebook, update their Facebook status and watch a movie.

This law, which TechDirt calls “terrible” is now the basis for evidence suppression in a drugs arrest.

Image Credit: Lord Jim (Flickr)

A new precedent has been set by the Seventh Court of Appeals after dismissing charges against Gregorio Paniagua Garcia, who was pulled over by the police for looking down at his phone while driving. He was searching for music on his phone and not typing – and therefore within the law, however the police stop resulted in five pounds of heroin being found in his car.

The Seventh Court of Appeals has set a new precedent meaning drivers can freely look down at their phones while driving. As the court document elaborates:

“The government failed to establish that the officer had probable cause or a reasonable suspicion that Paniagua was violating the no-texting law. The officer hadn’t seen any texting; what he had seen was consistent with any one of a number of lawful uses of cellphones. The government presented no evidence of what percentage of drivers text, and is thus reduced to arguing that a mere possibility of unlawful use is enough to create a reasonable suspicion of a criminal act. But were that so, police could always, without warrant or reasonable suspicion, search a random pedestrian for guns or narcotics. For it would always be possible that the pedestrian was a bank robber, a hired killer on the loose, a drug lord or drug addict, or a pedophile with child pornography on his thumb drive. “A suspicion so broad that [it] would permit the police to stop a substantial portion of the lawfully driving public … is not reasonable.”

TechDirt comments:

“Using this law as the basis for stops is unreasonable. The court points out that lousy laws make for bad policing and a whole host of civil liberties violations.”

Read more on this story here.

Traffic laws are stricter in the US than in Thailand, however it is still illegal to text and call while driving. Fines for being caught doing so range from 400 – 1000 baht.