A Baltimore police detective saw the outline of a gun through Steven Hicks’s shirt. He stopped him and searched his satchel. But according to a new ruling from the Appellate Court of Maryland, that stop violated the U.S. Constitution.
Hicks held a license to carry a firearm without restrictions. The court decided that simply seeing a gun “printing” through someone’s clothing does not give law enforcement the right to stop and search them.
Judge Kathryn Grill Graeff wrote the opinion for the court, explaining that officers need more than just the sight of a weapon to justify a stop.
“The police must have reasonable suspicion that the person is possessing the gun illegally or otherwise engaged in criminal activity,” Judge Graeff wrote. “Because the officers here stopped appellant based solely on his possession of a gun, without reasonable suspicion that he was possessing the gun illegally or otherwise involved in criminal activity, they did not have reasonable suspicion to stop him. The stop, therefore, violated appellant’s Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable seizures.”
The court’s written opinion clarified that the state relied entirely on the presence of the gun to justify the police action.
“The case was presented…as a stop justified solely on the possession of a gun, and it was presented in the briefs on appeal the same way,” the Appeals Court noted. “That is the argument that we have addressed, and it is the basis for our conclusion that the stop was unconstitutional.”
The ruling is catching the attention of Second Amendment advocates. The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) pointed to the decision as another step toward limiting government interference with gun rights.
“The Hicks ruling is a wake-up call to Maryland police they can no longer treat a constitutional right like a regulated privilege,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “As the court opinion noted, the subsequent search of Hicks and a satchel he was carrying was unconstitutional.”
Gottlieb connected the Maryland decision to a major 2022 Supreme Court case, noting that the legal landscape has shifted for gun owners and law enforcement alike.
“The Supreme Court’s Bruen ruling in 2022 has shifted the dynamic for police in states where statutes presumed people carrying firearms were up to no good,” Gottlieb observed. “That’s changed, and law enforcement, along with local prosecutors, need to get up to speed on this issue.”
He added that people who legally carry firearms don’t abandon their protection against illegal search and seizure.
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