The United States Supreme Court just issued its unanimous opinion in Brendlin v. California, written by Justice Souter, reversing the Supreme Court of California and holding that a passenger has standing to challenge the baseless stop of a car as an unconstitutional seizure of his person.

While it has long been recognized that a traffic stop is a seizure of the driver of a vehicle, the Court has never directly addressed whether the same holds true for a passenger in the vehicle.  That question is now settled.  In this case, the State of California conceded that the police had no reasonable suspicion to stop the car (a separate problem that appears to have gone unnoticed by all), but argued that since the passenger does not submit to police authority when a car is stopped, he is not “seized” within the meaning of the Constitution.  Justice Souter said “nope”, finding that the passenger is just as stopped as the driver.