Author Topic: When does a statutory “judgment bar” prevent lawsuits against federal officers for constitutional vi  (Read 445 times)

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Offline Elderberry

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SCOTUSblog by Daniel Harawa 11/6/2020

Case preview: When does a statutory “judgment bar” prevent lawsuits against federal officers for constitutional violations?

Twenty-one-year-old college student James King was walking between his summer jobs one afternoon. On his walk, he was approached by two plain-clothes officers, Douglas Brownback and Todd Allen, who were assigned to an FBI fugitive task force in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Brownback and Allen were on the lookout for a home invasion suspect. They did not have a clear or recent picture of the suspect, but they knew he was a 26-year-old white male, between 5-feet-10-inches and 6-feet-3-inches tall, who wore glasses, and apparently bought soda from the same gas station around the same time every day. Unfortunately for King, he fit the general description and was walking near the gas station, so Brownback and Allen decided to stop him.

While King at first acquiesced to the stop after spying badges hanging around the officers’ necks, when the officers took his wallet from his pocket, King asked if he was being mugged and tried to run away. The officers tackled him to the ground, and when King put up a struggle, they choked him and punched him repeatedly in the head, causing one onlooker to tell the 911 operator that the officers were “gonna kill this man.” As it turns out, King wasn’t the suspect. And when the state of Michigan nevertheless prosecuted King for resisting arrest, a jury acquitted him of all charges.

King sued the United States under the Federal Torts Claims Act, alleging that the officers committed a number of torts – the legal term for wrongful acts that cause injury and provide the injured person with the right to file a civil lawsuit under state law. He also sued the officers under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics, a landmark 1971 case in which the Supreme Court held that individuals may sue federal officials for violating their constitutional rights.

More: https://www.scotusblog.com/2020/11/case-preview-when-does-a-statutory-judgment-bar-prevent-lawsuits-against-federal-officers-for-constitutional-violations/#more-297568