...
By Jenna Sundel
News Reporter
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said in a dissent released on Monday that she "cannot fathom" the court's decision in a case related to reasonable suspicion in a police encounter.
The case stems from an early morning police encounter in Washington, D.C., in which a Metropolitan Police officer responded to a call about a suspicious vehicle and saw two people immediately flee from a car. The officer ordered the driver, identified only as R. W., to put his hands up, and the officer drew his service weapon.
The District of Columbia Court of Appeals (DCCA) ruled that the officer, by stopping R. W. without reasonable suspicion, violated the Fourth Amendment. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case and reversed the lower court's decision.
Read More on News
Jackson said the lower court's reasoning "does not merit the use of our summary discretion."
...
"If, finally, the Court's decision to intervene reflects disapproval of the DCCA's assessment of which particular facts to weigh and to what extent, I cannot fathom why that kind of factbound determination warranted correction by this Court," Jackson wrote.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor said she would not have agreed to hear the case.
Supreme Court Issues Order in District of Columbia v. R.W.: What To Know
The District of Columbia charged R.W. with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, felony receipt of stolen property, unlawful entry of a motor vehicle and operating a vehicle in the District of Columbia without a permit, "largely based" on evidence found after District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Officer Clifford Vanterpool told R.W. to put his hands up. R.W. was a minor at the time.
R. W. moved to suppress the evidence obtained after he was stopped, but the trial court denied the motion, citing four facts to conclude that the officer had reasonable suspicion to stop R.W. The four factors were the officer receiving a radio dispatch call regarding a suspicious vehicle, the officer seeing two people flee from the vehicle, the officer's time of arrival at around 2 a.m. and that as the officer approached the car, it began “backing out of the parking space…while the rear driver’s side door [was] still open.”
After a bench trial, the trial court found R. W. delinquent on all counts and assigned him one year of probation with conditions.
On appeal, R.W. argued that Officer Vanterpool "lacked reasonable articulable suspicion sufficient to justify the seizure." The District of Columbia Court of Appeals ruled in his favor, but the Supreme Court reversed the decision.
"On the facts of this case, Officer Vanterpool clearly had reasonable suspicion to stop R. W.," the court majority said in its order.
The court said that based on what the officer saw that night, "he drew the 'commonsense inference' that all three people in the car—including the driver—were trying to hide wrongdoing from the police."
Jackson said she is "not sure why our Court sees fit to intervene in this case, let alone to do so summarily."
"If the intervention reflects a worry that the District of Columbia Court of Appeals (DCCA) misunderstands the Fourth Amendment’s totality-of-the-circumstances analysis, that worry seems unfounded. The DCCA has grasped the correct inquiry," Jackson said.
Jackson said she "would not word-smith a lower court in this fashion."
"In my view, this is not a worthy accomplishment for the unusual step of summary reversal. Therefore, I respectfully dissent," Jackson said.
How Many Justices are on the Supreme Court?
There are nine Supreme Court justices, six conservatives and three liberals. The liberal justices are Justices Elena Kagan, Sotomayor and Jackson. The conservatives are Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
Do you have a story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have any questions about this story? Contact LiveNews@newsweek.com.
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines