# Messerschmidt v. Millender > Supreme Court of the United States · February 22, 2012 · 565 U.S. 535 URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9485386 ## Case - **Full name:** MESSERSCHMIDT Et Al. v. MILLENDER, Executor of ESTATE OF MILLENDER, DECEASED, Et Al. - **Court:** Supreme Court of the United States - **Decided:** February 22, 2012 - **Citations:** 565 U.S. 535; 132 S. Ct. 1235; 182 L. Ed. 2d 47; 2012 U.S. LEXIS 1687 - **Precedential status:** Published - **Opinion:** Concurrence by Breyer - **Judges:** Roberts, Breyer, Kagan, Sotomayor, Ginsburg - **Cited by:** 800 later opinions in the Frix Law Library ## Citator (automated) - No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases. - Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9485386 ## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction) - stating that qualified immunity “protects government officials from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known,” should provide “government officials… - holding that “[e]ven if the scope of the warrant were overbroad in authorizing a search for all guns when there was information only about a specific one,” under the circumstances, “it would not have been unreasonable for an officer to conclude that there was a fair probabilit… - concluding that officers’ reliance on a warrant to search for “all firearms and firearm-related materials” as well as gang-related materials was reasonable where the affidavit set forth that the suspect was a known gang member who had fired a sawed-off shotgun at a victim, irr… - explaining that though an officer is not automatically entitled to qualified immunity for seeking a warrant unsupported by probable cause simply because a magistrate approved the application, the fact that an officer is able to secure approval is “certainly pertinent” in asses… - holding that “the fact that the officers sought and obtained approval of the warrant from [] a deputy district attorney before submitting it to the Magistrate provides further support for the conclusion that an officer could reasonably have believed that the scope of the warra… ## Opinion text Justice Breyer, concurring. The Court concludes that the officers acted reasonably in searching the house for “‘all firearms and firearm-related items/” Ante, at 548 (emphasis deleted). In support of *557 this conclusion, it cites two sets of circumstances. First, the majority points to “Bowen’s possession of one illegal gun, his gang membership, his willingness to use the gun to kill someone, and his concern about the police . . . Ante, at 549. Second, the majority notes that “[a] reasonable officer also could believe that seizure of the firearms was necessary to prevent further assaults on Kelly,” because “Bowen had already attempted to murder Kelly once with a firearm, and had yelled ‘I’ll kill you’ as she tried to escape from him.” Ibid. In my view, given all these circumstances together, the officers could reasonably have believed that the scope of their search was supported by probable cause. On that basis, I concur. --- Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9485386. Public record. Not legal advice.