In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________________ Nos. 19-2928 & 19-3153 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. NAPOLEON JACKSON and KITTRELL FREEMAN, Defendants-Appellants. ____________________ Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. No. 18-cr-00804 — Robert W. Gettleman, Judge. ____________________ ARGUED MAY 13, 2020 — DECIDED JUNE 17, 2020 ____________________ Before FLAUM, HAMILTON, and ST. EVE, Circuit Judges. ST. EVE, Circuit Judge. Does an air freshener hanging from a rearview mirror obstruct the driver’s clear view? A Chicago police officer believed that, in this case, it did. That officer pulled over Napoleon Jackson and his passenger Kittrell Free- man for violating a provision of the Chicago municipal code prohibiting any object obstructing the driver’s clear view through the windshield. Officers subsequently recovered three firearms from the vehicle and Jackson and Freeman 2 Nos. 19-2928 & 19-3153 were each charged with unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon. Jackson and Freeman moved to suppress the evidence for lack of probable cause to conduct the traffic stop based on their argument that the officer erroneously believed that there could not be anything hanging from the rearview mirror, re- gardless of whether it obstructed the driver’s view. The dis- trict court denied the motion, finding that an officer could rea- sonably conclude that the air freshener obstructed the clear view and thus supported probable cause to conduct a traffic stop. Jackson and Freeman both pleaded guilty while preserv- ing their rights to appeal the suppression ruling. Though the district court couched its analysis in terms of probable cause, all that is required for a traffic stop is reason- able suspicion. Even so, because the officer had an articulable and objective basis for suspecting that the air freshener ob- structed Jackson’s clear view in violation of the city municipal code, the stop was lawful. The district court correctly denied the motion to suppress and we affirm the judgment. I. Background On September 18, 2018, Napoleon Jackson was driving on the southside of Chicago, along with Kittrell Freeman as a passenger, when Chicago Police Officer Melissa Petrus ob- served an object hanging from Jackson’s rearview mirror that appeared to be an air freshener. The two cars were facing each other across a multilane road and when Jackson turned left and crossed in front of Officer Petrus, who was on patrol with Officers Sodtez and De La O, she confirmed that the object was indeed a tree-shaped air freshener hanging from the rear- view mirror. Officer Petrus turned and followed Jackson’s car for about four blocks while she ran his license plate through LEADS, a law enforcement database. Officer Petrus then Nos. 19-2928 & 19-3153 3 pulled Jackson over to conduct a traffic stop because Jackson was in violation of a city ordinance regarding the obstruction of the driver’s clear view. Specifically, Officer Petrus cited Jackson for violating section 9-40-250(b) of the Chicago mu- nicipal code, which prohibits driving a motor vehicle “with ...
Original document
Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals