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Monday, June 2, 2014

No 4th Amendment Violation in Officers' Use of Deadly Force


The United States Supreme Court unanimously reversed the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in a case filed against police officers who had fired into a vehicle that had backed into them and then attempted to speed away.  The Sixth Circuit had denied the officers' motion to dismiss the Section 1983 suit, rejecting the officers' qualified immunity argument.

On appeal, the Supreme Court first held that the officers had not knowingly deprived the decedent's Fourth Amendment rights and had acted reasonably in using deadly force, considering the totality of the circumstances.  In the alternative, even if the officers' conduct had been a violation of the decedent's constitutional rights, the Court held they were entitled to qualified immunity.  Plumhoff v. Rickard, No. 12-1117 (May 27, 2014).

Post Authored by Julie Tappendorf, Ancel Glink

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