U.S. v. Cartwright

In prosecution on charge of unlawful possession of firearm by felon, Dist. Ct. did not err in denying defendant's motion to suppress gun seized from back seat of defendant's car during traffic stop that resulted in defendant's arrest. While govt. acknowledged that instant search that was incident to defendant's arrest on traffic matter violated Gant, denial of suppression motion was appropriate where police would have inevitably discovered gun pursuant to inventory search that was conducted in conformity with police dept. policy. Ct. also rejected defendant's claim that inventory of car was unnecessary (since someone else could have moved vehicle from roadway) where Ct. noted that no one could have legally driven car due to lack of functional license plate lamp.