United States of America v. Keith Rodney Moore

This brief urges the Fourth Circuit to affirm the lower court's decision properly applying circuit precedent to the plaintiff's selective enforcement defense. The selective enforcement defense was appropriately supported by statistics revealing significant racial disparities in the Richmond Police Department’s (“RPD”) enforcement of traffic stops against Black drivers compared to their white counterparts. The evidence supplied by the plaintiff sufficiently demonstrated both discriminatory effect and discriminatory purpose, meeting the threshold for a selective enforcement claim. The racial disparities in RPD’s enforcement at the time the plaintiff was stopped by RPD were exceptionally high as compared to other law enforcement agencies in Virginia at that time and as compared to RPD’s enforcement in future years.