Shon R. Hopwood

Shon R. Hopwood

shonhopwood@hotmail.com

Website: http://www.facebook.com/shonhopwood

Shon R Hopwood’s unusual legal journey began not at law school, but federal prison, where he learned to write briefs for other prisoners. Two petitions for certiorari he prepared were later granted review by the United States Supreme Court, and the story of his legal success was the subject of articles in the New York Times, the Saturday Evening Post, and Above the Law. His work has been published in the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties and Fordham Law Reviews. He is a consultant at Cockle Law Brief Printing Company, and a student and Gates Public Service Scholar at the University of Washington School of Law. In August of 2012, Crown/Random House will publish his memoir entitled "Law Man: My Story of Robbing Banks, Winning Supreme Cases and Finding Redemption." Through a decade of letters, Shon convinced his kind and beautiful wife, Ann Marie, to marry him. He has one cute but incredibly ornery son, Mark Raymond, and a precious and beautiful baby girl, Grace. Shon enjoys liberty, the writing of the Apostle Paul, Amy Hempel, and Raymond Carver, the music of Radiohead, and watching the Nebraska Cornhuskers football team. Follow me at: @shonhopwood

Shon R. Hopwood

Shon R Hopwood’s unusual legal journey began not at law school, but federal prison, where he learned to write briefs for other prisoners. Two petitions for certiorari he prepared were later granted review by the United States Supreme Court, and the story of his legal success was the subject of articles in the New York Times, the Saturday Evening Post, and Above the Law. His work has been published in the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties and Fordham Law Reviews.

He is a consultant at Cockle Law Brief Printing Company, and a student and Gates Public Service Scholar at the University of Washington School of Law.

In August of 2012, Crown/Random House will publish his memoir entitled “Law Man: My Story of Robbing Banks, Winning Supreme Cases and Finding Redemption.”

Through a decade of letters, Shon convinced his kind and beautiful wife, Ann Marie, to marry him. He has one cute but incredibly ornery son, Mark Raymond, and a precious and beautiful baby girl, Grace. Shon enjoys liberty, the writing of the Apostle Paul, Amy Hempel, and Raymond Carver, the music of Radiohead, and watching the Nebraska Cornhuskers football team.

Follow me at: @shonhopwood

Recent Posts:

How To Write Prison Grievances

I recently learned about a new book on how prisoners can write grievances complaining about their conditions in prison. The book, written by Terri LeClercq, is called “Prison Grievances: When to Write, How to Write.” The reason why this book is so good for prisoners is because it is written in a simple, and easy [...]

The Worst Torture: Solitary Confinement

What is the worst form of torture? I’ve been thinking about this subject for the past two weeks after reading an article written by William Blake, a New York State prisoner who has been housed in solitary confinement for the past 26 years because he murdered a sheriff’s deputy. Although I read the article two [...]

The Need for Prosecution Clinics in Ending Mass Incarceration

There is a debate fermenting at my law school, the University of Washington, over whether the school should fund a criminal prosecution clinic. I weighed in on the debate, and to the surprise of many, I said that I favor a prosecution clinic. I favor it because I think such a clinic, if done properly, [...]

How to Write An Effective Appellate Brief: Lessons from Judge Richard Posner

Judge Richard Posner, of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, recently laid out his view of appellate briefs (you can read the article on the ABA website here). Judge Posner writes: So, my essential advice to the appellate brief writer is to put yourself in the judge’s shoes all the way, as it were. That [...]

The Long Life and Now Death of the Virginia Sodomy Statute

Even though the Supreme Court invalidated this country’s sodomy laws ten years ago in Lawrence v. Texas, the State of Virginia has continued to press forward with prosecuting a few people for consensual sex acts. That is until yesterday, when a panel of the Fourth Circuit held the Virginia statue is unconstitutional as applied to [...]

Yale Kamisar’s Interactive Article on Miranda

The Washington Law Review recently published an interactive article written by Professor Yale Kamisar entitled, The Rise, Decline, and Fall (?) of Miranda. The article provides hyperlinks to source documents, including key cases, memoranda, and recordings of Supreme Court oral arguments. You can find the article here. For those of you unfamiliar with Kamisar’s work, he is widely [...]

How Having a Legal Background Helps and Hurts in Law School

I often receive the question of whether 10 years of prior legal experience helps or hurts in law school. I think the answer is both. Having a legal background helps in that the learning curve in year one is not so steep. Because I’m used to reading and analyzing cases, I think, as a general [...]

Cockle Printing And My Second Chance

This past week, the Seattle Times published an op-ed I wrote about the need for prison reform. In the article, I talk about how I caught a big break following my release from federal prison. I was released in October of 2008, during the heart of the recession, and everyone found it difficult to obtain [...]

What’s New on the U.S. Supreme Court’s Criminal Docket for the Rest of the 2012 Term

The Supreme Court’s 2012 Term started big and it will finish big. The finish to this Term will include decisions regarding same-sex marriage, affirmative action, and the Voting Rights Act cases. And if that wasn’t enough, there are a number of interesting criminal cases that the Court will decide before the end of June. There [...]

Saving Lives: The Post-Prison Education Project

Want to change a life? Make the community safer? Save taxpayer dollars? Incarcerating someone for one year costs around $35,000–as I wrote about yesterday in The Atlantic.com–it’s the equivalent of a year’s college tuition. It also leads to more crime in the long run as the national recidivism rate for returning prisoners hovers around 66%. [...]

Recent Comments:

Shon R. Hopwood
I meant to say in the response above this (I typed that response on my phone while on a bus). It doesn't matter if strip searching everyone would make a jail safer. Given the immensely important privacy and personal dignity interests at stake, the state should have to show that searches of people jailed for minor offenses would make the jail SUBSTANTIALLY more safe. Otherwise, its just not reasonable. Especially if they could use a metal detecting wand or some other method to discover weapons. I also just thought of two other things. First, the belief that somehow people would start purposely going to jail to smuggle in weapons just doesn't seem to fly. In every jail or prison I've ever been (and that is a fair share), weapons are plentiful so it wouldn't make much sense for prisoners to want someone to smuggle in a knife when they can get one anyway. What we are really talking about here are smuggling in drugs. Second, if the Supreme Court rules that some people don't have to be strip searched if there is not reasonable suspicion, and then suspicionless people start going to jail just to smuggle in drugs, the one positive result will be this: a more robust jail economy. Because if jail guards have to start competing against arrestees over the introduction of illicit drugs into the jail the prices for all drugs will go down!!! I kid, I kid.

Shon R. Hopwood
Barbara, Yes, I think Advanced Legal Research will be one of the most important classes I could ever take. The reasons are simple. It will make my research my thorough. And it will make me more efficient. So then I will have more time to write for the CockleBur. I can't imagine NOT taking that course. Shon

Shon R. Hopwood
Cyn, I don't know if David is publishing the book in hardcopy, but I will find out for you. Shon

Shon R. Hopwood
It surprises me that you read this article without recognizing the sarcasm. Of course, I am being flip. I made two arguments in the article. First, I think the Affordable Care Act is constitutional under current Supreme Court precedent. Many people that oppose the ACA would likely agree with me. Second, I think the Supreme Court's decisions on the Commerce Clause are WRONG, which is apparently the same thing you are contending. Other than you misunderstanding what I wrote, I completely agree with everything you said. The federal government is too big, controls too much our life, and has moved far beyond the limits placed upon it by the Constitution.

Shon R. Hopwood
Reid, I lived at Fort Myers (when I served in the Navy), which borders next to Arlington Cemetary. I know that the tombstones are not crosses (I have walked around the cemetary almost daily when I lived there). What I was referring to was the Argonne Cross and the Canadian Cross of Sacrifice that sits among the graves. Shon

Shon R. Hopwood
Jacob, This is one of the best speeches I have heard this year. I was particularly impressed with what you did not recommend, which is to have Libertarians shove their ideas down the throats of all who will listen. That is as wise as it is effective.