Byrd v. Lamb

Case: 20-20217 Document: 00515772043 Page: 1 Date Filed: 03/09/2021

United States Court of Appeals

for the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals

Fifth Circuit

FILED

March 9, 2021

No. 20-20217

Lyle W. Cayce

Clerk

Kevin Byrd,

Plaintiff—Appellee,

versus

Ray Lamb, Agent,

Defendant—Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Southern District of Texas

USDC No. 4:19-CV-3014

Before King, Elrod, and Willett, Circuit Judges.

Per Curiam:

Kevin Byrd alleges that Ray Lamb, an Agent for the Department of

Homeland Security, verbally and physically threatened him with a gun to

facilitate an unlawful seizure. Byrd filed a Bivens action against Agent Lamb

alleging use of excessive force to effectuate an unlawful seizure. Agent Lamb

filed a motion to dismiss pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure

12(b)(6). The district court denied Agent Lamb’s motion to dismiss. Agent

Lamb now appeals. We conclude that Byrd’s lawsuit is precluded by our

binding case law in Oliva v. Nivar, 973 F.3d 438 (5th Cir. 2020), petition for

cert. filed, 89 U.S.L.W. 28 (U.S. Jan. 29, 2021) (No. 20-1060). We therefore

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No. 20-20217

REVERSE and REMAND with instructions to dismiss the claims against

Agent Ray Lamb.

I.

In the early morning hours of February 2, 2019, Kevin Byrd went to

visit his ex-girlfriend, Darcy Wade, at the hospital after she called to tell him

that she had been in a car accident. Byrd learned that Wade had been in the

car with Eric Lamb (Darcy’s then-boyfriend) when they collided with a

Greyhound bus. Byrd also became aware that Wade and Eric Lamb had been

kicked out of a bar before the car accident occurred. Byrd went to that bar to

learn more details about this occurrence. After attempting to investigate,

Byrd tried to leave the parking lot of the bar, but he was prevented by Eric’s

father, Agent Ray Lamb.

Byrd alleges that Agent Lamb physically threatened him with a gun,

and verbally threatened to “put a bullet through his f—king skull” and that

“he would blow his head off.” Byrd further alleges that Agent Lamb

attempted to smash the window of his car and left marks and scratches on his

window.

Shortly after the incident began, Byrd called for police assistance.

Two local officers arrived at the scene. Byrd contends that upon the officers’

arrival, Agent Lamb identified himself as a federal agent for the Department

of Homeland Security, and one of the officers immediately handcuffed and

detained Byrd for nearly four hours.

After reviewing surveillance footage, the officers released Byrd.

Shortly thereafter, Agent Lamb was arrested and taken into custody for

aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and misdemeanor criminal mischief.

Byrd filed a Bivens action against Agent Lamb alleging use of excessive

force to effectuate an unlawful seizure and filed a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action

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against the two local officers for unlawfully detaining him. Agent Lamb and

the local officers filed motions to dismiss pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil

Procedure 12(b)(6) raising the defense of qualified immunity. Agent Lamb

also argued that he had reasonable suspicion of Byrd’s criminal activity,

including harassment and stalking of Lamb’s son. The district court granted

the officers’ motions to dismiss but denied Agent Lamb’s motion to dismiss.

Agent Lamb timely appealed.

II.

“We review the district court’s denial of the qualified immunity

defense de novo, accepting all well-pleaded facts as true and viewing them in

the light most favorable to the plaintiff.” Brown v. Miller, 519 F.3d 231, 236

(5th Cir. 2008). “Our jurisdiction over qualified immunity appeals extends

to ‘elements of the asserted cause of action’ that are ‘directly implicated by

the defense of qualified immunity[,]’ including whether to recognize new

Bivens claims.” De La Paz v. Coy, 786 F.3d 367, 371 (5th Cir. 2015) (quoting

Wilkie v. Robbins, 551 U.S. 537, 549 n.4 (2007)).

The Supreme Court has stated that “the Bivens question” is

“antecedent” to the question of qualified immunity. Hernandez v. Mesa

(Hernandez I), 137 S. Ct. 2003, 2006 (2017). In Bivens, the Supreme Court

recognized an implied right of action for damages against federal officers

alleged to have violated a citizen’s constitutional rights. Bivens v. Six

Unknown Named Agents of Fed. Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388, 397 (1971).

The Supreme Court has cautioned against extending Bivens to new

contexts. See Hernandez v. Mesa (Hernandez II), 140 S. Ct. 735, 744 (2020)

(holding that the plaintiff’s Bivens claim arose in a new context, and factors,

including the potential effect on foreign relations, counseled hesitation with

respect to extending Bivens); Ziglar v. Abbasi, 137 S. Ct. 1843, 1861 (2017)

(holding that plaintiff’s detention-policy claims arose in a new Bivens

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context, and factors, such as interfering with sensitive Executive-Branch

functions and inquiring into national-security issues, counseled against

extending Bivens). In fact, the Supreme Court has gone so far as to say that

extending Bivens to new contexts is a “‘disfavored’ judicial activity.” Abbasi,

137 S. Ct. at 1857 (quoting Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 675 (2009)).

The Supreme Court has provided a two-part test to determine when

extension would be appropriate. First, courts should consider whether the

case before it presents a “new context.” Hernandez II, 140 S. Ct. at 743.

Only where a claim arises in a new context should courts then proceed to the

second step of the inquiry, and contemplate whether there are “any special

factors that counsel hesitation about granting the extension.” Id. (cleaned

up). Some recognized special factors to consider include: whether there is a

“risk of interfering with the authority of the other branches,” whether “there

are sound reasons to think Congress might doubt the efficacy or necessity of

a damages remedy,” and “whether the Judiciary is well suited, absent

congressional action or instruction, to consider and weigh the costs and

benefits of allowing a damages action to proceed.” Id. “When a party seeks

to assert an implied cause of action under the Constitution,” as in this case,

“separation-of-powers principles . . . should be central to the analysis.”

Abbasi, 137 S. Ct. at 1857.

We recently addressed the extension of Bivens in Oliva v. Nivar, 973

F.3d 438. In that case, an altercation arose between police officers in a

Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital and Oliva over hospital ID policy. Id. at 440.

The VA officer wrestled Oliva to the ground in a chokehold and arrested him.

Id. We concluded that Oliva’s Fourth Amendment claim for use of excessive

force arose in a new context. Id. at 443.

In ruling in this case, the conscientious district court judge did not

have the benefit of our decision in Oliva and Agent Lamb’s attorney did not

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even raise the Bivens issue in the district court. Nevertheless, we must

address it here. In Oliva, we held that Bivens claims are limited to three

situations. First, “manacling the plaintiff in front of his family in his home

and strip-searching him in violation of the Fourth Amendment.” Id. at 442

(citing Bivens, 403 U.S. at 389–90). Second, “discrimination on the basis of

sex by a congressman against a staff person in violation of the Fifth

Amendment.” Id. (citing Davis v. Passman, 442 U.S. 228 (1979)). Third,

“failure to provide medical attention to an asthmatic prisoner in federal

custody in violation of the Eighth Amendment.” Id. (citing Carlson v. Green,

446 U.S. 14 (1980)). “Virtually everything else is a ‘new context.’” Id.

(quoting Abbasi, 137 S. Ct. at 1865).

To determine whether Byrd’s case presents a new context, we must

determine whether his case falls squarely into one of the established Bivens

categories, or if it is “different in a meaningful way from previous Bivens

cases decided by [the Supreme] Court.” Id. at 442 (quoting Abbasi, 137 S.

Ct. at 1859).

Here, although Byrd alleges violations of the Fourth Amendment, as

did the plaintiff in Bivens, Byrd’s lawsuit differs from Bivens in several

meaningful ways. This case arose in a parking lot, not a private home as was

the case in Bivens. 403 U.S. at 389. Agent Lamb prevented Byrd from leaving

the parking lot; he was not making a warrantless search for narcotics in

Byrd’s home, as was the case in Bivens. Id. The incident between the two

parties involved Agent Lamb’s suspicion of Byrd harassing and stalking his

son, not a narcotics investigation as was the case in Bivens. Id. Agent Lamb

did not manacle Byrd in front of his family, nor strip-search him, as was the

case in Bivens. Id. Nor did Lamb discriminate based on sex like in Davis, 442

U.S. at 230. Nor did he fail to provide medical attention like in Carlson, 446

U.S. at 23–24. As explained in Oliva, Byrd’s case presents a new context.

We must also determine whether any special factors counsel against

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extending Bivens. Here, as in Oliva, separation of powers counsels against

extending Bivens. Oliva, 973 F.3d at 444. Congress did not make individual

officers statutorily liable for excessive-force or unlawful-detention claims,

and the “silence of Congress is relevant.” Abbasi, 137 S. Ct. at 1862. This

special factor gives us “reason to pause” before extending Bivens. Hernandez

II, 140 S. Ct. at 743.

For these reasons, we reject Byrd’s request to extend Bivens. Because

we do not extend Bivens to Byrd’s lawsuit, we need not address whether

Agent Lamb is entitled to qualified immunity.

III.

We REVERSE and REMAND with instructions to dismiss the

claims against federal Agent Ray Lamb.

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Don R. Willett, Circuit Judge, specially concurring:

The majority opinion correctly denies Bivens relief.

Middle-management circuit judges must salute smartly and follow

precedent. And today’s result is precedentially inescapable: Private citizens

who are brutalized—even killed—by rogue federal officers can find little

solace in Bivens.

Between 1971 and 1980, the Supreme Court recognized a Bivens claim

in three different cases, involving three different constitutional violations

under the Fourth, Fifth, and Eighth Amendments. 1 Those nine years

represent the entire lifespan of Bivens. For four decades now, the Supreme

Court, while stopping short of overruling Bivens, has “cabined the doctrine’s

scope, undermined its foundation, and limited its precedential value.” 2 Since

1980, the Supreme Court has “consistently rebuffed” pleas to extend Bivens,

even going so far as to suggest that the Court’s Bivens trilogy was wrongly

decided. 3 The Bivens doctrine, if not overruled, has certainly been overtaken.

Our recent decision in Oliva v. Nivar erases any doubt. 4 José Oliva was

a 70-year-old Vietnam veteran who was choked and assaulted by federal

police in an unprovoked attack at a VA hospital. The Oliva panel isolated the

precise facts of the three Supreme Court cases that recognized Bivens

1

See Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Fed. Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388,

389–90 (1971) (strip search in violation of the Fourth Amendment); Davis v. Passman, 442

U.S. 228 (1979) (discrimination on the basis of sex in violation of the Fifth Amendment);

Carlson v. Green, 446 U.S. 14 (1980) (failure to provide medical attention to a prisoner in

violation of the Eighth Amendment).

2

Hernandez v. Mesa, 140 S. Ct. 735, 751 (2020) (Thomas, J., concurring).

3

Id. at 743.

4

973 F.3d 438 (5th Cir. 2020).

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liability, 5 quoted the Court’s recent admonition that extending Bivens was

“disfavored judicial activity,” 6 and concluded that Oliva had no

constitutional remedy. “Virtually everything” beyond the specific facts of

the Bivens trilogy “is a ‘new context,’” the panel held. 7 And new context =

no Bivens claim.

My big-picture concern as a federal judge—indeed, as an everyday

citizen—is this: If Bivens is off the table, whether formally or functionally,

and if the Westfall Act preempts all previously available state-law

constitutional tort claims against federal officers acting within the scope of

their employment, 8 do victims of unconstitutional conduct have any judicial

forum whatsoever? Are all courthouse doors—both state and federal—

slammed shut? If so, and leaving aside the serious constitutional concerns

that would raise, does such wholesale immunity induce impunity, giving the

federal government a pass to commit one-off constitutional violations?

Chief Justice John Marshall warned in 1803 that when the law no

longer furnishes a “remedy for the violation of a vested legal right,” the

United States “cease[s] to deserve th[e] high appellation” of being called “a

5

Id. at 442.

6

Id. (quoting Ziglar v. Abbasi, 137 S. Ct. 1843, 1857 (2017)).

7

973 F.3d at 442.

8

8 U.S.C. § 2679(b). The Federal Tort Claims Act does waive the United States’

sovereign immunity for certain intentional torts—but not for excessive-force claims against

individual federal officers. For victims like José Oliva, Congress offers no protection at all;

indeed, it has removed protection. Hernandez, 140 S. Ct. at 752 (Thomas, J., concurring).

Beyond providing no federal-officer corollary to § 1983, Congress “has pre-empted the

state tort suits that traditionally served as the mechanism by which damages were recovered

from federal officers.” Id. (citing the Westfall Act, 8 U.S.C. § 2679(b)). For Oliva, as for

many victims of unconstitutional conduct at the hands of federal officers, it’s Bivens or

nothing.

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government of laws, and not of men.” 9 Fast forward two centuries, and

redress for a federal officer’s unconstitutional acts is either extremely limited

or wholly nonexistent, allowing federal officials to operate in something

resembling a Constitution-free zone. Bivens today is essentially a relic,

technically on the books but practically a dead letter, meaning this: If you

wear a federal badge, you can inflict excessive force on someone with little

fear of liability.

At bottom, Bivens poses the age-old structural question of American

government: who decides—the judiciary, by creating implied damages

actions for constitutional torts, or Congress, by reclaiming its lawmaking

prerogative to codify a Bivens-type remedy (or by nixing the preemption of

state-law tort suits against federal officers)? Justices Thomas and Gorsuch

have called for Bivens to be overruled, contending it lacks any historical

basis. 10 Some constitutional scholars counter that judge-made tort remedies

against lawless federal officers date back to the Founding. 11 Putting that

debate aside, Congress certainly knows how to provide a damages action for

9

Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137, 163 (1803).

10

Hernandez, 140 S. Ct. at 750–53 (Thomas, J., concurring, joined by Gorsuch, J.).

11

See James E. Pfander & David Baltmanis, Rethinking Bivens: Legitimacy and

Constitutional Adjudication, 98 Georgetown L. J. 117, 134 (2009); see also Carlos M.

Vazquez & Steven I. Vladeck, State Law, the Westfall Act, and the Nature of the Bivens

Question, 161 U. Pa. L. Rev. 509, 532 (2013); Sina Kian, The Path of the Constitution: The

Original System of Remedies, How it Changed, and How the Court Responded, 87 N.Y.U. L.

Rev. 132,144 (2012); Peter Margulies, Curbing Remedies for Official Wrongs: The Need for

Bivens Suits in National Security Cases, 68 Case W. Res. L. Rev. 1153, 1156–64 (2018);

Steven I. Vladeck, Supreme Court Review, Cato Institute,

https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/2020-09/2020-supreme-court-review-

10_vladeck.pdf; James E. Pfander, Alexander A. Reinert, Joanna C. Schwartz, The Myth of

Personal Liability: Who Pays When Bivens Claims Succeed, 72 Stan. L. Rev. 561, 569

(2020); Brief Amicus Curiae of Douglas Laycock, James E. Pfander, Alexander A. Reinert

and Joanna C. Schwartz, Hernandez v. Mesa, 140 S. Ct. 735 (2020).

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unconstitutional conduct. Wrongs inflicted by state officers are covered by §

1983. But wrongs inflicted by federal officers are not similarly righted, leaving

constitutional interests violated but not vindicated. And it certainly smacks

of self-dealing when Congress subjects state and local officials to money

damages for violating the Constitution but gives a pass to rogue federal

officials who do the same. Such imbalance—denying federal remedies while

preempting nonfederal remedies—seems innately unjust.

I am certainly not the first to express unease that individuals whose

constitutional rights are violated at the hands of federal officers are

essentially remedy-less. 12 A written constitution is mere meringue when

rights can be violated with nonchalance. I add my voice to those lamenting

today’s rights-without-remedies regime, hoping (against hope) that as the

chorus grows louder, change comes sooner.

12

See Marbury, 5 U.S. at 163 (noting the “general and indisputable rule, that where

there is a legal right, there is also a legal remedy”) (quoting 3 William Blackstone,

Commentaries, 23); see also Joan Steinman, Backing Off Bivens and the Ramifications of

This Retreat for the Vindication of First Amendment Rights, 83 Mich. L. Rev. 269 (1984);

Betsy J. Grey, Preemption of Bivens Claims: How Clearly Must Congress Speak?, 70 Wash.

U. L.Q. 1087, 1127 (1992); Joanna C. Schwartz, Alexander A. Reinert, and James E.

Pfander, Going Rogue: The Supreme Court’s Newfound Hostility to Policy-Based Bivens

Claims, Notre Dame L. Rev., Forthcoming 2021,

https://ssrn.com/abstract=3778230; William Baude, Bivens Liability and its Alternatives,

https://www.summarycommajudgment.com/blog/a-few-thoughts-about-bivens-liability.

10