A federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled today that a police officer's check of a license plate is not a search that would require a search warrant under the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that "people do not have a subjective expectation of privacy in their license plates."

The court issued its ruling in the Oregon case of Ismael Diaz-Castaneda, an undocumented immigrant who was a passenger in a pickup truck stopped on a highway by a deputy sheriff in 2004.

After the deputy found from a license plate check that the truck owner's driving license was suspended, the deputy checked Diaz-Castaneda's identification as well.

Diaz-Castaneda was eventually indicted and convicted on charges of illegal re-entry into the United States after committing an aggravated felony and was sentenced to seven years in prison.

He claimed in his appeal that the license plate check that set off the investigation was an illegal search in violation of the Constitution.

But Circuit Judge Raymond Fisher wrote that license plates are in plain view and "are specifically intended to convey information about a vehicle to law enforcement authorities, among others."

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