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Pennsylvania v. Michael J. Hicks

Paid petition · Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, Middle District, No. 56 MAP 2017 · judgment May 31, 2019


Certiorari denied · December 9, 2019
Pre-decision estimate: 2% cert probability

Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.

Questions presented

  1. Whether the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision in this case is contrary to this Court’s precedent and established framework for the analysis of reasonable suspicion where the Pennsylvania Court did not analyze the totality of the circumstances as perceived by the police officer and instead imagined innocent scenarios to delimit those factors and ultimately decided that the stop was unconstitutional.

  2. Whether the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s outright rejection of the element-or-defense test to determine whether reasonable suspicion exists when an individual is carrying a firearm in public as unconstitutional is error when this test has been widely accepted by other federal and state jurisdictions.

Counsel of record

For petitioner
James B. Martin
District Attorney of Lehigh County

For respondent
Kathryn Rose Smith
Lehigh County Public Defender's Office

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Amicus briefs
1 cert-stage

Linked docket
19A201

Proceedings

  1. Dec 09 2019
    Motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed by respondent GRANTED.
  2. Dec 09 2019
    Petition DENIED.
  3. Nov 20 2019
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 12/6/2019.
  4. Oct 31 2019
    Brief amicus curiae of Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association filed.
  5. Oct 31 2019
    Motion of Michael J. Hicks for leave to proceed in forma pauperis not accepted for filing. (November 05, 2019)(Corrected version submitted)
  6. Oct 31 2019
    Brief of Michael J. Hicks in opposition not accepted for filing. (November 05, 2019)(Corrected verison submitted)
  7. Oct 31 2019
    Brief of respondent Michael J. Hicks in opposition filed. (11/5/2019)
  8. Oct 31 2019
    Motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed by respondent Michael J. Hicks. (11/5/2019)
  9. Sep 27 2019
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due October 31, 2019)
  10. Aug 20 2019
    Application (19A201) granted by Justice Alito extending the time to file until September 27, 2019.
  11. Aug 16 2019
    Application (19A201) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from August 29, 2019 to September 27, 2019, submitted to Justice Alito.