People v. Leath

In People v. Leath (2013) 217 Cal.App.4th 344, the appellate court held "that a voluntary relinquishment of one's identification card does not constitute a seizure as long as the encounter is consensual under the totality of the circumstances." (Leath, supra, 217 Cal.App.4th at p. 353.) The Leath court declined to follow Castaneda, explaining that "the Castanedaholding essentially 'eviscerates the rule that a law enforcement officer may ask an individual for identification without having any suspicion that he or she has committed a crime, because as soon as the individual complies with the constitutional request, an unconstitutional seizure will have occurred.' ." (Ibid.) The Leath court further observed: "The right to ask an individual for identification in the absence of probable cause is meaningless if the officer needs probable cause to accept the individual's proof of identification. Moreover, . . . an individual's voluntary cooperation with an officer's request for identification does not convert the request into a detention because the individual is 'free at this point to request that his identification be returned and to leave the scene.' ." (Ibid.)