Bingham

Opinion by Judge TASHIMA; Partial Concurrence and Partial Dissent by Judge REINHARDT.

OPINION

Howard Bingham was pulled over by Manhattan Beach Police Officer Robert Schreiber in the early morning hours of October 4, 1999. Schreiber alleges that Bingham was driving erratically. After Bingham showed Schreiber an expired driver’s license, and a check of that license found an outstanding warrant for an individual with similar identifying information, Schreiber arrested Bingham and brought him to the police station, where he was held for several hours. Bingham filed this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 , contesting both the traffic stop and the arrest. Schreiber sought summary judgment on qualified immunity grounds. The district court denied the motion as to the traffic stop, but granted it as to the arrest. Schreiber appeals the denial of the motion and Bingham cross-appeals the grant. We affirm the district court.

JURISDICTION

Although the denial of a summary judgment motion ordinarily is not appeal-able, we have jurisdiction over an interlocutory appeal when the ground for the motion is qualified immunity. Jeffers v. Gomez, 267 F.3d 895, 903 (9th Cir.2001) (per curiam); Schwenk…

concurring in part and dissenting in part:

I join Part I of the majority opinion, although I offer some additional comments as to Part I.B. As to Part II, I agree with the majority that for purposes of this appeal, we must assume that Officer Schreiber arrested Howard Bingham for driving with an expired license and not in order to verify the outstanding warrant; in such case, the arrest violated clearly established California law. After making those determinations, however, the majority errs by applying the “closely related offense” doctrine to offenses that are wholly unrelated and, by so doing, reaches the erroneous conclusion that the arrest was justified. I, therefore, respectfully dissent as to Part II. I would allow Bingham to proceed to trial on his unreasonable arrest claim as well as on his claim that he was the victim of an unlawful stop.

Equal Protection

I join Part I.B reluctantly. Bingham, a well known and highly respected photographer, asserts that he was stopped because he is African American. He believes that he was stopped solely on account of his race, because in his view “the record provides no other rational reason” for the stop. While Schreiber claims to…