Commonwealth v. Buckley

*770**862In this appeal we are asked to reconsider one tenet of our search and seizure jurisprudence: that a traffic stop constitutes a "reasonable" "seizure" for purposes of art. 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights where a police officer has observed a traffic violation, notwithstanding the officer's underlying motive for conducting the stop. See Commonwealth v. Santana, 420 Mass. 205, 649 N.E.2d 717 (1995). For the sound legal and practical reasons discussed below, we decline to depart from that tenet as the general standard governing the validity of traffic stops under art. 14. We…