By ALAN SAYRE Associated Press Writer

October 22, 2002, 10:08 AM EDT

NEW ORLEANS -- A National Rifle Association sticker was not enough justification to warrant a police search of a pickup truck for a gun, a federal appeals court has ruled.

A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that police in a Dallas suburb did not have probable cause when they searched Jeffrey L. Estep's truck and found a pistol in a case.

"Indeed, if the presence of an NRA sticker and camouflage gear in a vehicle could be used by an officer to conclude he was in danger, half the pickups in the state of Texas would be subject to a vehicle search," the majority wrote.

Estep, who had been stopped for speeding, sued three officers in Garland, Texas, over the March 29, 1993, search and his subsequent arrest for a weapons violation.

According to the court record, Estep heard one officers tell another that he suspected a weapon was present because of the NRA sticker on his truck.

According to the court record, Estep got out of the pickup with his identification and was asked by an officer if he was carrying a weapon. Estep said he wasn't, although he gave the officer a canister of mace he was carrying on a key chain.

The vehicle also contained a camouflage jacket, according to the court.

After two other officers were called in, the vehicle was searched and the weapon was found.

The panel's majority, including 5th Circuit Judge Robert Parker and U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison, said none of the evidence in view of the officers, including the sticker and the jacket, constituted legal reason for a search.

5th Circuit Chief Judge Carolyn King dissented. "I am dismayed by the probability that Estep has received a free pass in this case because his pickup truck sports an NRA sticker," King wrote.

-- Anonymous, October 22, 2002