A police officer who was driving at nearly twice the posted speed limit isn’t entitled to immunity from a lawsuit stemming from the resulting car crash because he wasn’t responding to any genuine emergency, a divided 4th U.S. Circuit Court ...

Tagged with: Qualified Immunity

Graham v. Gagnon (Lawyers Weekly No. 001-132-16, 29 pp.) (Floyd, J.) No. 15-1521, July 27, 2016; USDC at Alexandria, Va. (Ellis, J.) 4th Cir. Holding: The 4th Circuit reverses summary judgment for defendant police officers in a woman’s suit alleging ...

Tagged with: obstruction of justice Qualified Immunity

Raub v. Campbell (Lawyers Weekly No. 001-078-15, 23 pp.) (Diaz, J.) No. 14-1277, April 29, 2015; USDC at Richmond, Va. (Hudson, J.) 4th Cir. Holding: A mental health evaluator has qualified immunity in this civil rights suit filed by an ...

Tagged with: mental health Qualified Immunity

Smith v. Ray (Lawyers Weekly No. 001-053-15, 24 pp.) (Traxler, J.) No. 12-1503, March 18, 2015; USDC at Norfolk, Va. (Miller, J.) 4th Cir. Holding: A Virginia Beach police officer accused of grabbing a woman, who merely answered his knock ...

Tagged with: Excessive Force Qualified Immunity

Mallory v. Holdorf The defendant-officers assert that (1) their investigation led to a timeline of events that gave plaintiff sufficient opportunity to murder his wife; (2) there were no signs of forced entry at the crime scene; (3) a neighbor reported hearing a domestic argument between a man and a woman...

Tagged with: Civil Rights Probable Cause Qualified Immunity

Merchant v. Bauer A Fairfax County police officer could not objectively and reasonably have believed plaintiff was impersonating a police officer in violation of a Virginia statute when plaintiff, a psychologist who served as deputy director of a Maryland county correctional department, had a badge in her pocket, used air quotes to refer to her county-provided “police car,” and told the officer he should show her professional courtesy; the 4th Circuit upholds a denial of qualified immunity to the officer.

Tagged with: Civil Rights Impersonating a Police Officer Malicious Prosecution Qualified Immunity

Lefemine, d/b/a Columbia Christians for Life v. Wideman The 4th Circuit upholds a judgment that a local sheriff’s department violated a pro-life group’s First Amendment rights when officers asked group members not to display “large, graphic signs” with aborted fetuses as part of a roadside demonstration, but the appellate court also upholds qualified immunity for defendants.

Tagged with: Civil Rights Constitutional First Amendment Free Speech Qualified Immunity

Braun v. Maynard Maryland prison officials who used ion scanning to screen employees and performed vehicle searches and strip searches of those who tested positive for drug residue have qualified immunity from the employees’ suit alleging violation of their Fourth Amendment rights; the 4th Circuit says no clearly established federal law put defendant officers on notice the scan results here could not support a strip search.

Tagged with: Civil Rights Constitutional Fourth Amendment Qualified Immunity Strip Search

Henry v. Purnell A deputy who mistook his pistol for a Taser can be sued for shooting an unarmed, fleeing suspect; on rehearing, the en banc 4th Circuit says a jury could find that the deputy’s mistake was “objectively unreasonable” because he should have realized he had grabbed a .40 caliber Glock handgun and there was no threat from the man he was chasing for failure to pay child support.

Tagged with: Civil Rights Police Officer Qualified Immunity

A federal judge threw out a lawsuit in which a man convicted of plotting terrorism blamed top federal officials for a variety of alleged constitutional torts, including torture in a Navy brig in Charleston. U.S. District Judge Richard M. Gergel said Jose Padilla had no private cause of action for damages and that the defendants, including Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and brig officials, had qualified immunity. "We think the idea that an American citizen who was horrifically abused on American soil has no constitutional remedy is profoundly wrong," said Ben Wizner (pictured) of New York, litigation director for the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation.

Tagged with: Qualified Immunity