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''Plumhoff v. Rickard'', 572 U.S. 765 (2014), is a
United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point ...
case involving the
use of force The use of force, in the context of law enforcement, may be defined as the "amount of effort required by police to compel compliance by an unwilling subject". Use of force doctrines can be employed by law enforcement officers and military pers ...
by
police officer A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...
s during high-speed
car chase A car chase or vehicle pursuit is the vehicular overland chase of one party by another, involving at least one automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on ro ...
s. After first holding that it had
jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, areas of jurisdiction apply to local, state, and federal levels. Ju ...
to hear the case, the Court held that the conduct of the police officers involved in the case did not violate the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits unreasonable
searches and seizures Search and seizure is a procedure used in many civil law and common law legal systems by which police or other authorities and their agents, who, suspecting that a crime has been committed, commence a search of a person's property and confiscat ...
. Near midnight on July 18, 2004, Donald Rickard led police officers on a high-speed car chase ending in a parking lot, where officers fired fifteen shots into Rickard's car as he continued to flee. Rickard and his passenger both died from a combination of gunshot wounds and injuries sustained when the car eventually crashed. Rickard's daughter sued the officers who shot Rickard, arguing that they had used
excessive force Excessive Force is a musical side project started in 1991 by Sascha Konietzko of KMFDM and Buzz McCoy of My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult. History In 1991, Excessive Force released the single " Conquer Your House", followed by the album '' C ...
in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The officers moved for
summary judgment In law, a summary judgment (also judgment as a matter of law or summary disposition) is a judgment entered by a court for one party and against another party summarily, i.e., without a full trial. Summary judgments may be issued on the merits of ...
, arguing they were entitled to
qualified immunity In the United States, qualified immunity is a legal principle that grants government officials performing discretionary (optional) functions immunity from civil suits unless the plaintiff shows that the official violated "clearly established statu ...
because their actions did not violate law that was clearly established at the time of the car chase. The district court denied this motion, and the court of appeals affirmed. On May 27, 2014, the Supreme Court reversed, holding that the officers did not violate the Fourth Amendment. In a unanimous (9–0) decision authored by Justice Samuel Alito, the Court found that Rickard's actions posed a "grave public safety risk" and that the officers "acted reasonably in using deadly force to end that risk". The Court also found that the number of shots fired was also reasonable, writing that "if police officers are justified in firing at a suspect in order to end a severe threat to public safety, the officers need not stop shooting until the threat has ended". Finally, the Court found that even if the officers' conduct did violate the Fourth Amendment, they would still be entitled to summary judgment based on qualified immunity because their actions did not violate clearly established law at the time of the incident.


Background


Prior case law

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits unreasonable
searches and seizures Search and seizure is a procedure used in many civil law and common law legal systems by which police or other authorities and their agents, who, suspecting that a crime has been committed, commence a search of a person's property and confiscat ...
by the federal government, and the Fourteenth Amendment extends this prohibition to state governments under the
incorporation doctrine In United States constitutional law, incorporation is the doctrine by which portions of the Bill of Rights have been made applicable to the states. When the Bill of Rights was ratified, the courts held that its protections extended only to the ...
. In the course of their duties, police officers must sometimes make split-second decisions in situations where they believe there is a serious threat to the lives of themselves or the public. The
use of force The use of force, in the context of law enforcement, may be defined as the "amount of effort required by police to compel compliance by an unwilling subject". Use of force doctrines can be employed by law enforcement officers and military pers ...
by police officers to counter such threats constitutes a Fourth Amendment seizure. The Supreme Court has previously held in such cases as ''
Tennessee v. Garner ''Tennessee v. Garner'', 471 U.S. 1 (1985), is a civil case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that, under the Fourth Amendment, when a law enforcement officer is pursuing a fleeing suspect, the officer may not use deadly force ...
'' (1985) and '' Graham v. Connor'' (1989) that the use of force, including deadly force, by a police officer does not violate the Fourth Amendment if it is "objectively reasonable" in light of the circumstances confronting them. Prior to ''Plumhoff'' the Supreme Court had also examined the use of force against fleeing motorists specifically. In ''
Brosseau v. Haugen The Supreme Court of the United States handed down six '' per curiam'' opinions during its 2004 term, which began October 4, 2004 and concluded October 3, 2005. Because ''per curiam'' decisions are issued from the Court as an institution, these o ...
'' (2004), the Supreme Court upheld the use of force by a police officer who fired her gun into the back of a suspect's car after chasing the suspect on foot. The Court held in ''
Scott v. Harris ''Scott v. Harris'', 550 U.S. 372 (2007), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States involving a lawsuit against a sheriff's deputy brought by a motorist who was paralyzed after the officer ran his eluding vehicle off the road duri ...
'' (2007) that a "police officer's attempt to terminate a dangerous high-speed car chase that threatens the lives of innocent bystanders does not violate the Fourth Amendment, even when it places the fleeing motorist at risk of serious injury or death." In both cases, the Court confirmed that the standard of review for force against fleeing motorists is the same "objective reasonableness" standard as that in ''Graham v. Connor''. If a person believes that the use of force against them is unjustified, 42 U.S.C. §1983 allows them to file a civil action, claiming a violation of their constitutional rights. In general, police officers are protected from individual liability from these claims by the
qualified immunity In the United States, qualified immunity is a legal principle that grants government officials performing discretionary (optional) functions immunity from civil suits unless the plaintiff shows that the official violated "clearly established statu ...
doctrine, which prevents government officials, including police officers, from being held individually liable for federal civil rights violations unless their conduct violated clearly established law at the time in question. In '' Johnson v. Jones'' (1995), the Supreme Court held that a defendant entitled to qualified immunity in these kinds of cases cannot immediately appeal a district court's order regarding a motion for
summary judgment In law, a summary judgment (also judgment as a matter of law or summary disposition) is a judgment entered by a court for one party and against another party summarily, i.e., without a full trial. Summary judgments may be issued on the merits of ...
"insofar as that order determines whether or not the pretrial record sets forth a genuine issue of fact for trial".


Facts of the case

Around midnight on July 18, 2004, Lieutenant Joseph Forthman of the
West Memphis, Arkansas West Memphis is the largest city in Crittenden County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 26,245 at the 2010 census, ranking it as the state's 18th largest city, behind Bella Vista. It is part of the Memphis metropolitan area, and is ...
, Police Department pulled over a white
Honda Accord The , also known as the in Japan and China for certain generations, is a series of cars manufactured by Honda since 1976, best known for its four-door sedan variant, which has been one of the best-selling cars in the United States since 1989. ...
driven by Donald Rickard because the car had only one working headlight. A woman named Kelly Allen sat in the car's passenger seat. During the
traffic stop A traffic stop, commonly referred to as being pulled over, is a temporary detention of a driver of a vehicle by police to investigate a possible crime or minor violation of law. United States A traffic stop is usually considered to be a T ...
, the lieutenant noticed an indentation in the car's windshield that, according to him, was "'roughly the size of a head or basketball'". He then saw beer in the car and asked whether Rickard had been drinking, which Rickard denied. Rickard appeared nervous and failed to produce a driver's license when asked; the lieutenant asked him to step out of the car, but Rickard sped away. The lieutenant, later joined by other officers, pursued Rickard in a high-speed car chase down
Interstate 40 Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west Interstate Highway running through the south-central portion of the United States. At a length of , it is the third-longest Interstate Highway in the country, after I-90 and I-80. From west to ea ...
that reached speeds beyond per hour.''Plumhoff'', 572 U.S. 765, slip op. at 2. The chase lasted approximately five minutes. According to a video of the car chase, Rickard nearly struck 29 other drivers, struck two different patrol cars, and nearly struck another patrol car. Rickard drove east, crossing the
Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it ...
into Tennessee. The officers attempted unsuccessfully to use a "
rolling roadblock Rolling is a type of motion that combines rotation (commonly, of an axially symmetric object) and translation of that object with respect to a surface (either one or the other moves), such that, if ideal conditions exist, the two are in contact ...
" to stop Rickard. After exiting Interstate 40, Rickard collided with the cruiser of one of the officers and spun out into a parking lot in
Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the County seat, seat of Shelby County, Tennessee, Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 Uni ...
. Rickard temporarily stopped next to a building, and officers approached his car on foot. Rickard then began to back up, and an officer pounded against his passenger-side window with his firearm. Rickard subsequently collided with another police cruiser, and even though Rickard's bumper was flush against the cruiser, he continued to use his accelerator. At this point, Sergeant Vance Plumhoff fired three shots into Rickard's car. Then, as Rickard continued "fleeing down" a street, officers Troy Galtelli and John Gardner fired twelve additional shots in the direction of Rickard's car, making the total number of shots fired in the incident fifteen. Rickard then lost control and crashed into a building. He and Allen died from a combination of gunshot wounds and crash injuries.''Plumhoff'', 572 U.S. 765, slip op. at 3.


Lower court proceedings

Whitne Rickard, Rickard's
minor Minor may refer to: * Minor (law), a person under the age of certain legal activities. ** A person who has not reached the age of majority * Academic minor, a secondary field of study in undergraduate education Music theory *Minor chord ** Bar ...
daughter, filed a legal action under
42 U.S.C. § 1983 The Enforcement Act of 1871 (), also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, Third Enforcement Act, Third Ku Klux Klan Act, Civil Rights Act of 1871, or Force Act of 1871, is an Act of the United States Congress which empowered the President to suspend t ...
against Plumhoff and the other officers, alleging that the officers had violated the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments by using excessive force against her father. The officers filed a motion for
summary judgment In law, a summary judgment (also judgment as a matter of law or summary disposition) is a judgment entered by a court for one party and against another party summarily, i.e., without a full trial. Summary judgments may be issued on the merits of ...
on the basis of
qualified immunity In the United States, qualified immunity is a legal principle that grants government officials performing discretionary (optional) functions immunity from civil suits unless the plaintiff shows that the official violated "clearly established statu ...
. The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee denied this motion on January 20, 2011, holding that the officers' conduct violated clearly established law at the time of the incident. Before the case could proceed, the officers appealed the district court's denial to the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (in case citations, 6th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: * Eastern District of Kentucky * Western District of K ...
, which initially dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction, citing the Supreme Court's decision in ''Johnson v. Jones'', but later vacated that judgment and instead affirmed the District Court's holding on October 9, 2012.''Plumhoff'', 572 U.S. 765, slip op. at 4.
Estate of Allen v. City of West Memphis
', 509 F. App'x 388, 389 (6th Cir. 2012)


Supreme Court

The officers filed a petition for a writ of ''certiorari'' with the Supreme Court. The petition was distributed for
conference A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main ...
six times before the Court granted ''certiorari'' on November 15, 2013. Two questions were presented in the petition: (1) "whether the Sixth Circuit wrongly denied qualified immunity to Petitioners by analyzing whether the force used in 2004 was distinguishable from factually similar force ruled permissible three years later in ''Scott v. Harris'' .., and (2) "whether the Sixth Circuit erred in denying qualified immunity by finding the use of force was not reasonable as a matter of law when, under Respondent's own facts, the suspect led police officers on a high-speed pursuit ...


Opinion of the Court

Justice Samuel Alito delivered the opinion of the Court on May 27, 2014. Writing for a unanimous Court, Alito first addressed whether the Court had
jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, areas of jurisdiction apply to local, state, and federal levels. Ju ...
to hear the case as an
interlocutory appeal An interlocutory appeal (or interim appeal), in the law of civil procedure in the United States, occurs when a ruling by a trial court is appealed while other aspects of the case are still proceeding. Interlocutory appeals are allowed only under s ...
. Alito then wrote that the officers' conduct did not violate the Fourth Amendment. Finally, Alito stated that the officers would still be entitled to qualified immunity even if their actions had violated the Fourth Amendment. The Court reversed the judgment of the Sixth Circuit and remanded the case for further proceedings consistent with its opinion.


Jurisdiction

In general, federal law (specifically ) only allows courts of appeals to hear appeals from the "final decisions" of district courts, and Alito acknowledged that an order denying summary judgment "is generally not a final decision within the meaning of §1291 and is thus generally not immediately appealable".''Plumhoff'', 572 U.S. 765, slip op. at 5. However, summary judgments based on qualified immunity are an exception to this general rule, since qualified immunity is "an immunity from suit rather than a mere defense to liability". Alito rejected the respondent's argument that the Court's decision in ''Johnson v. Jones'' prevents the Court from having jurisdiction in this case, stating that in ''Johnson'', the summary judgment order was not appealable because "it merely decided 'a question of evidence sufficiency', ''i.e.'' which facts a party may, or may not, be able to prove at trial". In the case of ''Plumhoff v. Rickard'', however, the officers raised legal issues, and Alito stated that "deciding legal issues of this sort is a core responsibility of appellate courts".


Fourth Amendment

Moving to his constitutional analysis of the case, Alito explained that he was beginning his analysis of whether the officers violated "clearly established law" by answering whether the officers actually violated the Fourth Amendment, citing the Court's decision in ''
Saucier v. Katz ''Saucier v. Katz'', 533 U.S. 194 (2001), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court considered the qualified immunity of a police officer to a civil rights case brought through a Bivens action. Background In 1994, the Presidi ...
'' (2001). Alito reaffirmed the Court's decisions in ''Graham v. Connor'' and ''Tennessee v. Garner'' that excessive force claims against law enforcement officers are evaluated under the "objective reasonableness" standard of the Fourth Amendment, which "requires analyzing the totality of the circumstances". Examining the facts of the case "from the perspective 'of a reasonable officer on the scene, rather than with 20/20 vision of hindsight'", Alito concluded that the officers had acted reasonably and had not violated the Fourth Amendment, stating:
Under the circumstances at the moment when the shots were fired, all that a reasonable police officer could have concluded was that Rickard was intent on resuming his flight and that, if he was allowed to do so, he would once again pose a deadly threat for others on the road.
Alito wrote there was "no basis for reaching a different conclusion" from the Court's decision in ''Scott v. Harris'', stating that "Rickard's outrageously reckless driving posed a grave public safety risk" and that "the police acted reasonably in using deadly force to end that risk". Furthermore, Alito stated that the degree of force that the officers used when firing 15 shots into Rickard's car was also reasonable, writing that "if police officers are justified in firing at a suspect in order to end a severe threat to public safety, the officers need not stop shooting until the threat has ended".''Plumhoff'', 572 U.S. 765, slip op. at 11. In Rickard's case, Alito stated that "during the 10-second span when all the shots were fired, Rickard never abandoned his attempt to flee" and that the case would be different "if petitioners had initiated a second round of shots after an initial round had clearly incapacitated Rickard and had ended any threat of continued flight, or if Rickard had clearly given himself up". The presence of a passenger in Rickard's car does not affect this analysis because the question in the case is "whether petitioners violated Rickard's Fourth Amendment rights, not Allen's".


Qualified immunity

Finally, Alito wrote that even if the officers' conduct had violated the Fourth Amendment, they "would still be entitled to summary judgment based on qualified immunity".''Plumhoff'', 572 U.S. 765, slip op. at 12. Alito reiterated that an official is "entitled to qualified immunity unless it is shown that the official violated a statutory or constitutional right that was '"clearly established"' at the time of the challenged conduct". Citing the Court's decision in ''
Ashcroft v. al-Kidd ''Ashcroft v. al-Kidd'', 563 U.S. 731 (2011), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that U.S. Attorney General John D. Ashcroft could not be personally sued for his involvement in the detention of a U.S. citizen in the ...
'' (2011), Alito stated that a defendant in a qualified immunity case is said to have violated a "clearly established right" only when "the right's contours were sufficiently definite that any reasonable official in the defendant's shoes would have understood that he was violating it". In the case of ''Plumhoff'', Alito wrote that the Court's decision in ''Brosseau v. Haugen'', in which the Court found reasonable the conduct of a police officer who fired shots at a fleeing vehicle, "squarely demonstrates that no clearly established law precluded petitioners' conduct at the time in question".''Plumhoff'', 572 U.S. 765, slip op. at 13.


Analysis and reception


Legal implications

In a legal analysis published in ''
Criminal Justice Review In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...
'', a peer-reviewed academic journal published by
SAGE Publishing SAGE Publishing, formerly SAGE Publications, is an American independent business, independent publishing company founded in 1965 in New York by Sara Miller McCune and now based in Newbury Park, California. It publishes more than 1,000 journal ...
, Darrell L. Ross of
Valdosta State University Valdosta State University (VSU or Valdosta State) is a public university in Valdosta, Georgia. It is one of the four comprehensive universities in the University System of Georgia. , VSU had over 12,000 undergraduate and graduate students. VSU ...
discussed the legal and practical implications of ''Plumhoff''. According to Ross, "lower courts are reminded of how to assess issues pertaining to qualified immunity, particularly in use of force cases". Specifically, the "correct standard, as reiterated by the Court—which was never discussed by the Sixth Circuit—is whether the right was sufficiently clear that every reasonable official would have understood what he or she is doing violates that right." During the course of the Court's review of the case, the justices watched audiovisual recordings of the car chase that led to Rickard's death. In an analysis published in the ''
Fordham Law Review The ''Fordham Law Review'' is a student-run law journal associated with the Fordham University School of Law that covers a wide range of legal scholarship. Overview In 2017, the ''Fordham Law Review'' was the seventh-most cited law journal by o ...
'', Denise K. Barry compared ''Plumhoff'' to the case '' Tolan v. Cotton'' (2014), in which the Supreme Court summarily vacated a motion which granted summary judgment to a police officer on the basis of qualified immunity. In ''Tolan'', no audio-visual evidence was available for the Court to review. In comparing the cases, Barry argued that "the Court decided ''Tolan'' and ''Plumhoff'' as it did because in ''Tolan'', the evidence was purely testimonial, while in ''Plumhoff'', an audiovisual record was available to the Court". In her analysis, Barry proposed that judges "must undergo further education regarding the near impossibility of experiencing audiovisual evidence objectively", concluding that rather than judges, "more often than not, a jury should view the audiovisual evidence, bringing to this purported objective evidence a variety of viewpoints and perspectives".


Effect on law enforcement

In his analysis of ''Plumhoff'', Ross also commented that police are reminded of the Court's principles regarding the use of deadly force in accordance with ''Graham'', especially as it pertains to fleeing motorists. Specifically, Ross wrote, "Whether force appears reasonable is measured from the perspective of the officer at the moment the officer decided to use it." Ross also emphasized the implications of the Court's analysis over the number of rounds fired: police officers "are not trained or required to shoot to wound", he wrote, "nor are they trained to shoot warning shots prior to responding with deadly force". According to Ross, "Justice Alito confirmed the fact officers are trained to keep shooting until the threat is stopped". Finally, Ross wrote, "Police administrators are encouraged to review and revise their current use of force and pursuit policies consistent with this decision." Ross recommended that "administrators should provide training to their officers on use of force legal issues and principles that emerge from ''Rickard'', ''Graham'', ''Scott'', and ''Brosseau''". In an article published in the ''
UC Davis Law Review The University of California, Davis School of Law (Martin Luther King Jr. Hall), referred to as UC Davis School of Law and commonly known as King Hall, is the professional graduate law school of the University of California, Davis. The school rece ...
'', Sharon R. Fairley, a lecturer at the
University of Chicago Law School The University of Chicago Law School is the law school of the University of Chicago, a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is consistently ranked among the best and most prestigious law schools in the world, and has many dist ...
, wrote that "law enforcement experts and agencies generally agree that firing at or into moving vehicles is an unsound police tactic", arguing that "the Court should reconsider its opinion n ''Plumhoff''that using deadly force is almost always a more effective way to end a vehicle pursuit than merely abandoning the pursuit". In the '' Michigan Journal of Race & Law'', Jonathan M. Smith of the
David A. Clarke School of Law The University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law (UDC Law) is the law school of the University of the District of Columbia, a public historically black land-grant university in Washington, D.C. It is named after David A. C ...
wrote, "While the ''Plumhoff'' Court emphasized the dangerousness of a high-speed chase, it ignored the fact that the chase would cease as soon as the police stopped chasing the suspect." Given the danger posed by high-speed chases, Smith commented that "the National Institute of Justice issued recommendations in 1990 to limit the use of high-speed chases and to pursue alternatives, including ceasing the pursuit and tracking down the car at a later time through its license plate number". In an article published in the '' Alabama Civil Rights & Civil Liberties Law Review'', John P. Gross, an assistant professor at the
University of Alabama School of Law The University of Alabama School of Law, (formerly known as the Hugh F. Culverhouse Jr. School of Law at The University of Alabama) located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama is a nationally ranked top-tier law school and the only public law school in the st ...
, discussed ''Plumhoff'' in the context of multiple cases related to qualified immunity and commented that they "give little guidance to law enforcement agencies attempting to develop use of force policies". Gross compared ''Plumhoff'' to the 2015 case ''
Mullenix v. Luna ''Mullenix v. Luna'', 577 U.S. ___ (2015), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that a police officer who shot a suspect during a police pursuit was entitled to qualified immunity. In a per curiam opinion, the Court he ...
'', describing both as "especially problematic" because both "approved of shooting into a car in an effort to stop a fleeing suspect despite the fact that the vast majority of law enforcement agencies instruct officers to never fire into a moving car".


Reactions and criticism

Erwin Chemerinsky Erwin Chemerinsky (born May 14, 1953) is an American legal scholar known for his studies of United States constitutional law and federal civil procedure. Since 2017, Chemerinsky has been the dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law. Previously, he a ...
, the dean of the
University of California, Irvine School of Law The University of California, Irvine School of Law is the law school at the University of California, Irvine. It is the fifth law school in the UC system. In September 2007, Erwin Chemerinsky was named as the law school's first dean. Chemerinsky ...
, wrote an opinion piece published in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', in which he described the Court's decision as "deeply disturbing", arguing that there are alternatives to shooting at fleeing vehicles, such as "shooting out the car’s tires" or "taking the license plate number and tracking the driver down later". In the article, Chemerinsky also opposed the doctrine of qualified immunity, arguing that it poses an unreasonable burden for individuals alleging violations of constitutional rights. In a blog post published in ''
The Hill ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...
'', Jonathan R. Nash, a professor of law at
Emory University School of Law Emory University School of Law is the law school of Emory University and is part of the University's main campus in Druid Hills, Atlanta, Georgia. It was founded in 1916 and was the first law school in Georgia to be granted membership in the Am ...
, argued that the Court's decision in ''Plumhoff'' was inconsistent with the precedent it set in ''Scott'', commenting that the Court "jettisoned ''Scott'''s careful balancing in favor of an approach designed to give the police substantial leeway in terminating chases". Nash stated there were differences between the facts in ''Plumhoff'' versus the facts in ''Scott'', which he felt should have compelled the Court to a different conclusion. For example, in ''Scott'', the police used a maneuver that caused the driver to spin out of control, whereas in ''Plumhoff'', the police used their firearms. Additionally, in ''Scott'', the driver was the only one in the fleeing car, whereas in ''Plumhoff'', Rickard had a passenger. In a post published in the blog ''Crimes and Consequences'', Kent Scheidegger commented that in light of ''Scott'', "it is clear enough that there was no Fourth Amendment violation on the straight merits of the case, and it is virtually beyond dispute that the officers were entitled to qualified immunity". On that basis, Scheidegger speculated that the reason ''Plumhoff'' was distributed for conference numerous times was because the Court was considering reversing the Sixth Circuit as a summary disposition.


Footnotes


References

; Citations ; Sources * * * * ''Plumhoff v. Rickard'', 572 U.S. 765 (2014)
slip op.
* *


External links

*
SCOTUS blog
* – the parking lot where Rickard's car spun out (vi
Oyez
{{US4thAmendment, seizures, state=expanded United States Supreme Court cases United States Supreme Court cases of the Roberts Court United States Fourth Amendment case law 2014 in United States case law West Memphis, Arkansas Law enforcement in Arkansas People shot dead by law enforcement officers in the United States