The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit split sharply along ideological lines Monday in holding that a police officer’s pat-down search of an armed suspect during a traffic stop did not violate Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure.

The en banc majority ruling, joined by all of the court’s Republican-appointed judges and one Democratic appointee, came over the objection of three Democratic appointees, who said the case was an example of “disastrous” precedent that gave police too much leeway to act without accountability.