State v. McCabe, Minn.Ct.App., 2/6/2017. There's a statute that says that drivers must display lighted headlamps and lighted tail lamps in three circumstances:
(1) at any time from sunset to sunrise; (2) at any time when it is raining, snowing, sleeting, or hailing; and (3) at any other time when visibility is impaired by weather, smoke, fog or other conditions or there is not sufficient light to render clearly discernible persons and vehicles on the highway at a distance of 500 feet ahead.
Minn.Stat. 169.48, subd. 1(a). Well, when the cops stopped the vehicle in which Mr. McCabe was a passenger it was "raining lightly." There were no lights. Mr. McCabe had a handgun that he wasn't supposed to have so the state charged him with that. He said, and the trial court agreed, that despite this "light rain" the visibility was not impaired and so the cops had no business stopping the vehicle.
The court of appeals said, no, the statute creates three distinct conditions under which lights must be displayed. In this case, the "light rain" was enough. That gave the cops a lawful basis to have stopped the vehicle and that was that.
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