Texas Judiciary Assignment
Texas has an unusual appeals process for judicial cases. District courts, where trials on matters of fact are held, are separated into different types according to the kind of cases they hear. You may notice when you vote in county elections, there are civil courts, criminal courts, probate courts, family courts, etc.
All these cases are appealed to a court that has jurisdiction in all of those areas. The First and Fourteenth Courts of Appeals, which meet in Houston, hear all kinds of criminal and civil cases.
After that, however, the process splits again. Criminal cases go to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Civil cases go to the Texas Supreme Court.
Go to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals website: https://www.txcourts.gov/cca/Links to an external site.
Use the “case search” feature to find a case called “State of Texas v. Sheila Jo Hardin” (PD-0799-19 ),” decided on November 2, 2022
A Corpus Christi police officer had received a “Be on the Lookout” (BOLO) notice regarding a U-Haul truck that was suspected of being involved in multiple burglaries. He noticed a U-Haul parked at a closed KFC restaurant around 1:30 on a Sunday morning and followed it when it pulled out of the parking lot. He stopped the U-Haul, driven by Sheila Hardin, for committing the traffic offense of “failing to maintain a single marked lane of traffic” when he observed the right rear tire of her rented U-Haul touch and drive on the striped line marking the right side of center lane, even though no other vehicles were around.
Based upon evidence collected from a search of Hardin’s vehicle after the traffic stop, she was charged with fraudulent possession of identifying information and forgery of a government instrument. Her attorney argued the evidence should be suppressed because the driving infraction wasn’t enough to justify the traffic stop. The state argued that drifting out of your lane is a traffic violation, regardless of whether or not it was safe to do so, and that the violation provided reasonable suspicion for the traffic stop.
Write an essay explaining the facts of the case and how the court ruled. What did Justice Newell say about the court’s reasoning in his majority opinion? What is a concurring opinion, and what did Justice Slaughter say in hers? What is a dissenting opinion, and why did Justices Keller, Yeary and Keel file two separate dissents? Finally, if you were on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, how would you have ruled, and why?
