No. 21-7889

Zahkuan Bailey-Sweeting, aka Zahkuan Sweeting-Bailey v. Massachusetts

Lower Court: Massachusetts
Docketed: 2022-05-17
Status: Denied
Type: IFP
Response WaivedIFP
Tags: 14th-amendment 4th-amendment fourth-amendment individualized-suspicion pat-frisk police-hunch police-stop reasonable-suspicion search-and-seizure traffic-stop unreasonable-search
Key Terms:
FourthAmendment DueProcess CriminalProcedure
Latest Conference: 2022-09-28
Question Presented (from Petition)

Mr. Zahkuan Bailey-Sweeting was a passenger in a car stopped by three police officers for a minor traffic infraction. At the time of the traffic stop, the officers had received no reports of any criminal activity. Under these circumstances, did the pat-frisk of Mr. Bailey-Sweeting violate his right to be free from unreasonable searches under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment where Mr. Bailey-Sweeting did not do or say anything suspicious, but rather, the police suspected, based only on an admitted "hunch", that a fellow passenger's conduct, provoked by a pattern of police harassment, was an effort to distract them?

Question Presented (AI Summary)

Did the pat-frisk of Mr. Bailey-Sweeting violate his right to be free from unreasonable searches under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment?

Docket Entries

2022-10-03
Petition DENIED.
2022-06-23
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 9/28/2022.
2022-06-16
Waiver of right of respondent Massachusetts to respond filed.
2022-05-13
Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due June 16, 2022)

Attorneys

Massachusetts
Anna E. LumelskyMassachusetts Attorney General's Office, Respondent
Zahkuan Bailey-Sweeting
David James NathansonWood & Nathanson, LLP, Petitioner