Case law

Mills v. Graves

930 F.2d 729 · Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · Apr 11, 1991

We conclude that the officer was protected from liability by qualified immunity, and thus we affirm. … Officer Robertson bears the burden of establishing his qualified immunity defense, including the reasonableness of his belief that his conduct was constitutional. Benigni v.

Wood v. Sunn

865 F.2d 982 · Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · Jan 17, 1989

The Supreme Court decided an entirely different issue in this case: precisely what must be "clearly established" for a law enforcement officer to be entitled to summary judgment on the issue of qualified immunity in the context … of a warrantless search. 4 The Supreme Court held that qualified immunity is available if a reasonable police officer could have believed that the search was justified, in light of clearly established law and the information

Chalkboard, Inc. Karen M. Hoyt v. Susan Brandt Boyd Dover Lucinda Blair Andy Harclerode Sherry Meredith Lloyd Novick Douglas X. Patino Darwin Cox

879 F.2d 668 · Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · Jul 13, 1989

ABSOLUTE IMMUNITY Defendants first argue that they are absolutely immune. In general, executive officials are protected only by qualified immunity. Butz v. … We conclude that Hoyt, as operator of Chalkboard, had a clearly established due process right to a hearing before her license was suspended, at least in the absence of an emergency—a point we discuss later.

James H. Shelton and University Village Music Center, a Business v. United States Customs Service and Russell D. Wrenn, Gene S. Orr and Kern

565 F.2d 1140 · Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · Dec 13, 1977

The district court was correct in deciding that the conduct of the individual defendants was within the protection of the doctrine of qualified immunity. See Midwest Growers Co-op Corp. v. Kirkemo, supra. … The affidavits in support of the motion for summary judgment clearly support this immunity and those affidavits in opposition do not defeat the application or raise any genuine issue of fact which would require a jury to

Robert Calabretta v. Floyd

189 F.3d 808 · Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · Aug 26, 1999

They claim qualified immunity on the ground that there is no clearly established principle to the contrary. The principle they urged is too broad. … It is not clear that a conflict among other circuits would create qualified immunity where clearly established law in this circuit would preclude it, 19 but even if it could, these cases would not establish such an open question

Lena Childs v. San Diego Family Housing LLC

22 F.4th 1092 · Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · Jan 14, 2022

For the same reason, SDFH and Lincoln’s attempt to analogize derivative sovereign immunity to qualified immunity fails, because the denial of qualified immunity would impact the substantial public interest in inducing “officials … to show reasonable initiative when the relevant law is not ‘clearly established.’”

Mills v. Graves

930 F.2d 729 · Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · Jun 4, 1991

Qualified immunity protects "all but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the law." … Malley, 475 U.S. at 341 , 106 S.Ct. at 1096 . 9 Officer Robertson bears the burden of establishing his qualified immunity defense, including the reasonableness of his belief that his conduct was constitutional.

Lester Shinault v. Dick Hawks

776 F.3d 1027 · Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · Jan 22, 2015

The panel nevertheless affirmed the district court’s summary judgment in favor of defendants on the basis of qualified immunity because the constitutional obligation was not clearly established at the time of the conduct. … HAWKS basis of qualified immunity because the constitutional obligation was not clearly established at the time of the conduct.1 FACTUAL BACKGROUND AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY Lester Shinault was incarcerated

Lewis v. Sacramento County

98 F.3d 434 · Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · Oct 9, 1996

Whether a government official “is entitled to qualified immunity turns on a two part inquiry: ‘(1) Was the law governing the official’s conduct clearly established? … “An officer is not entitled to qualified immunity on the grounds that the law is not clearly established every time a novel method is used to inflict injury.” Mendoza, 27 F.3d at 1360 .

Rogers v. County of San Joaquin

487 F.3d 1288 · Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · May 29, 2007

Reasonable Official: [11] In order to assess Royal’s claim of qualified immunity, we must conduct a two-part analysis: “1) Was the law govern- ing the official’s conduct clearly established? … [12] Notwithstanding this clearly established law, the dis- trict court granted Royal qualified immunity, holding that the application of the law to medical neglect was not clearly established.

Ciria v. Gerrans

Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · Jun 5, 2026

Clearly Established Law We consider next whether Defendants are nonetheless entitled to qualified immunity at this stage because the law was not clearly established at the time of the events in question. … Clearly Established Law We next consider whether Defendants are entitled to qualified immunity on the malicious prosecution claim.

Rhodes v. Robinson

380 F.3d 1123 · Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · Aug 19, 2004

Rowland, 65 F.3d 802 , 806 & n. 4 (9th Cir.1995) (“[T]he prohibition against retaliatory punishment is ‘clearly established law’ in the Ninth Circuit, for qualified immunity purposes. … must first reiterate our firm recognition that “the prohibition against retaliatory punishment is ‘clearly established law' in the Ninth Circuit, for qualified immunity purposes.”

Lewis v. Sacramento County

98 F.3d 434 · Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · Oct 9, 1996

The court therefore found that the law regarding Lewis's Fourteenth Amendment right to life and personal security was not clearly established and granted summary judgment in favor of Officer Smith on qualified immunity grounds … Elder, 510 U.S. at 510-11 , 114 S.Ct. at 1020 . 42 Whether a government official "is entitled to qualified immunity turns on a two part inquiry: '(1) Was the law governing the official's conduct clearly established?

SUSAN PECK V. ANTHONY MONTOYA

Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · Oct 18, 2022

We may review “the application of ‘clearly established’ law to a given (for appellate purposes undisputed) set of facts” to determine whether the facts establish a violation of a clearly established constitutional right … The deputies are entitled to qualified immunity on that claim because Peck has not established any constitutional violation, let alone a clearly established one.

Joann Davis v. United States

854 F.3d 594 · Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · Apr 13, 2017

of qualified immunity for a Bivens v. … A defendant is not entitled to qualified immunity if “the facts that a plaintiff has alleged or shown make out a violation of a constitutional right,” and that right was “‘clearly established’ at the time of [the] defendant

Michelle Cameron v. Michelle Craig

713 F.3d 1012 · Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · Apr 16, 2013

The County Defendants asserted that the amount of force used was reasonable and that Craig is entitled to qualified immunity because no clearly established law put her on notice that the force employed was excessive. … CRAIG 19 The County Defendants are not entitled to qualified immunity at this juncture as the record does not permit us to decide whether they violated clearly established law.

Gausvik v. Perez

345 F.3d 813 · Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · Oct 3, 2003

Pelletier, 516 U.S. 299 , 116 S.Ct. 834 , 133 L.Ed.2d 773 (1996), and set forth our analysis governing qualified immunity cases. … Qualified Immunity 11 Perez is entitled to qualified immunity if his "conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known." Harlow v.

White v. Lee

227 F.3d 1214 · Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · Sep 27, 2000

Was the Law Clearly Established? Having concluded that the plaintiffs have stated a proper First Amendment claim, we next consider whether the HUD officials are entitled to qualified immunity. … In analyzing a claim of qualified immunity, this court asks two related questions: (1) Was the law governing the officials’ conduct clearly established?

Russell Earl Shouse v. Karl H. Ljunggren

792 F.2d 902 · Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · Jun 20, 1986

immunity. … (b) Qualified Immunity Defense Ljunggren enjoys a qualified immunity from damages under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 unless his conduct violated “ ‘clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would

Millender v. County of Los Angeles

620 F.3d 1016 · Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · Aug 24, 2010

III “The doctrine of 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 … A police officer is not entitled to qualified immunity if: (1) the facts show that the officer’s conduct violated a plaintiffs constitutional rights; and (2) those rights were clearly established at the time of the *1024