Richard Diamond reports:
Federal agents do not have the ability to conduct a traffic stop in Vermont that violates the state constitution, the state Supreme Court ruled last week. A Customs and Border Patrol agent had set up in a hidden spot near the Canadian border on August 12, 2018, when the car belonging to Phillip Walker-Brazie and Brandi-Lena Butterfield, US citizens who were on their way home to Richford on Route 105, drove past.
Border Patrol agent Jeffery Vining said that he saw the car slow down as if it had planned to turn, but instead it continued straight while the driver looked in the rear view mirror as the agent followed. The agent explained that he considered Butterfield’s mirror-checking to be a nervous attempt to “avoid being stopped.” So, he conducted a traffic stop.
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