The United States Supreme Court recently issued opinions on two cases regarding qualified immunity of police officers alleged to have used excessive force. In both cases, the Court held that qualified immunity applied, overturning decisions of the Ninth and Tenth Circuit Courts of Appeal respectively. The Court stated that to survive a qualified immunity defense, a plaintiff must show that the law clearly established a right to be free from excessive force in the specific context surrounding the alleged conduct so that every reasonable officer was on notice that the alleged conduct would violate the right. The Court found that the plaintiffs in both cases failed to meet this burden because the cases they cited were materially distinguishable from the alleged conduct.
In Rivas-Villegas v. Cortesluna, 595 U.S. ____ (2021), 142 S. Ct. 4, officers responded to a 911 call from a woman and children who barricaded themselves in a bedroom to hide from the woman’s boyfriend, fearing he would harm them with a chainsaw. While arresting the boyfriend, an officer knelt on the man’s back for an unknown amount of time while other officers removed a knife from his pocket. The Court distinguished this conduct from a Ninth Circuit case where police responded to a noise complaint, the suspect was unarmed, and an officer deliberately dug his knee in the suspect’s back long enough to cause serious injury.
In City of Tahlequah v. Bond, 595 U.S. ____ (2021), 142 S. Ct. 9, officers responded to a 911 call regarding an intoxicated man who refused to leave his ex-wife’s garage. After the man refused to leave, the officers entered the garage. The man retrieved a hammer and raised it above his head. After he ignored the officers’ repeated demands to drop the hammer, officers fired their weapons, killing the man. The Court distinguished this conduct from multiple Tenth Circuit cases where police approached potentially suicidal individuals while screaming and either physically wrestled the suspect or pepper-sprayed them.
Cortesluna and Bond both uphold police officers’ qualified immunity, holding that an officer is immune from liability unless the law has clearly established that in the context of the matter at hand, every reasonable officer should know that the conduct would violate the suspect’s right to be free from excessive force.