Law in the Time of Corona

JOANNA L. GROSSMAN, LAWRENCE M. FRIEDMAN

SMU Dedman School of Law professor Joanna L. Grossman and Stanford law professor Lawrence M. Friedman discuss the implications of COVID-19 on the execution of wills and marriage. Grossman and Friedman argue that the COVID-19 crisis demonstrates how quickly and universally Americans rush into court, demanding from judges legal solutions to ethical, political, and social issues.

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United States v. Howell

Docket: 18-3157

Opinion Date: May 4, 2020

Judge: Scudder

Areas of Law: Constitutional Law, Criminal Law

In December 2012, Chicago Police officers responded to an anonymous call reporting a Hispanic man in a black sweater and black hat, carrying a bag, and climbing under a warehouse fence. They found someone who matched the description. After stopping and frisking him, they determined he was not engaged in any crime. Howell, walking toward the police, was white and wearing a black jacket and dark hat. When an officer approached to speak to him, Howell did not answer, looked panicked, and put his hands in his pockets. The officer patted Howell down and found a gun in his jacket. A federal gun charge followed. Howell unsuccessfully moved to suppress the gun. The Seventh Circuit reversed the denial of his suppression motion and vacated his conviction for possessing that gun. The court noted that the facts in the pretrial record differed significantly from those presented at trial, where the arresting officer testified that he decided to proceed with the pat-down only after Howell ignored a directive to remove his hands from his pockets. Viewing the pretrial record as a whole, the police lacked reasonable suspicion to frisk Howell. The court did not reverse Howell’s conviction on a second gun charge that resulted from the execution of a warrant to search Howell’s apartment three months after the initial stop and the ensuing discovery of more guns and ammunition.