⚖ Oral Arguments, with Context

A traffic maneuver in Paducah, Kentucky, leads to a federal gun prosecution. In February 2021, Haynes drove to the right of a stopped car and then turned right at an intersection. An officer following him considered that improper lane use and pulled him over. The officer also wanted to investigate an encounter four months earlier, when a driver in a stolen car had fled from police. He believed Haynes was that driver. During the February stop, officers directed Haynes out of his car. Another officer saw a gun in the driver's door. Because Haynes had a prior felony conviction, the gun led to the federal charge at issue here. Haynes asked the district court to suppress the gun: to exclude it from evidence on the ground that police had obtained it through an unconstitutional stop. The judge denied that request. The judge concluded that the initial stop rested on an objectively reasonable interpretation of Kentucky traffic law, even if that interpretation might ultimately be mistaken. The appeal focuses on that initial decision to stop the car. Kentucky's rules distinguish passing on the right from driving off the roadway, and the parties disagree about how those rules fit this intersection and maneuver. Crossing a white line does not, by itself, answer which statute was violated. Haynes's lawyer will argue that the officer lacked a lawful basis for the stop and that the government cannot repair that gap with new theories developed afterward. The government will defend the stop under the traffic rules and the doctrine of reasonable mistakes of law. That doctrine does not mean any sincere misunderstanding is enough. The mistake must be objectively reasonable; careless study of the law gets no special protection. The lawyers will begin with those competing views.

United States v. Mauricus Haynes (No. 24-5539) — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, argued October 21, 2026.