Case law

Lowe v. Hamilton County Department of Job & Family Services

610 F.3d 321 · Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit · Jul 1, 2010

Causey, 521 F.3d 544, 554 (6th Cir.2008) (finding that the issue of municipal liability was inextricably intertwined with a qualified-immunity determination because the municipality could be liable only if its employees committed … This scheme is clearly distinguishable from the statutory scheme considered in Ernst .

Mohamed v. Jones

100 F.4th 1214 · Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit · May 7, 2024

As the Supreme Court said in Mitchell, “The conception animating the qualified immunity doctrine . . . is that where an official’s duties legitimately require action in which clearly established rights are not implicated … [t]he nub of qualified immunity is the need to induce officials to show reasonable initiative when the relevant law is not clearly established.” 546 U.S. at 353 (quotations omitted).

Bateson v. Geisse

857 F.2d 1300 · Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · Sep 20, 1988

Thus, whether the city council members are immune "turns on the objective reasonableness of their conduct in light of clearly established law, not on their subjective good faith." Lowe v. … Neither absolute or qualified immunity protects the appellants from suit.

White v. Armontrout

29 F.3d 357 · Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit · Jul 6, 1994

A government official who performs discretionary functions is protected from suit under the doctrine of qualified immunity as long as that official’s conduct did not violate “clearly established statutory or constitutional … the more particularized constitutional right exists under the facts of the case, it cannot be said that the prison official’s action violated clearly established law.”

Richard E. Maxwell v. The City of Indianapolis, Sergeant Harry Gurnell, Officer Dennis Rahn, and Officer George Diehl

998 F.2d 431 · Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit · Jun 29, 1993

Under the doctrine of qualified immunity, “public officials performing discretionary functions are protected against suits for damages unless their conduct violates clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of … But if a reasonable officer would not have believed that Maxwell was Moore, then the officers, whatever they themselves did or did not believe, are acting contrary to clearly established law and are not entitled to immunity

Achterhof v. Selvaggio

886 F.2d 826 · Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit · Oct 6, 1989

The district court found that in continuing to contact Karen Achterhof, Selveggio had not violated any “clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.” … It may be the case that the defendants’ qualified immunity cannot be resolved on the pleadings.

Oumar Sissoko Julie Sissoko v. Loyda R. Rocha United States of America, Oumar Sissoko, an Individual Julie Sissoko, an Individual v. Alberto R. Gonzales, Attorney General, Attorney General of the United States U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Service Doris Meissner, Commissioner, United States Ins Richard Nmi Rogers, District Director, United States Ins Four Unknown Named Officers, of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service United States U.S. Public Health Services Joseph Chen, Md Unknown Named Employees of the United States Public Health Services, and Loyda R. Rocha, Immigration Inspector, United States Ins

412 F.3d 1021 · Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · Jun 13, 2005

[and that] Defendant Rocha is not entitled to qualified immunity. Because he was not a newly-arriving alien, Mr. Sissoko's right not to be detained was clearly established. … Violation of a clearly established right?

Royal Crown Day Care LLC v. Department of Health and Mental Hygiene of the

Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit · Mar 19, 2014

Defendants’ Qualified Immunity Defense 9 “The defendants are entitled to qualified immunity if they can establish 10 either that (1) ‘a constitutional right was [not] violated’ or (2) ‘the right was [not] 11 … clearly established.’” 

Clark v. Edmunds

513 F.3d 1219 · Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit · Jan 23, 2008

However, because qualified immunity is “designed to protect public officials from spending inordinate time and money defending erroneous suits at trial,” we “review summary judgment decisions involving a qualified immunity … -4- constitutional or statutory right”; second, the plaintiff must show that this right was “clearly established at the time of the conduct at issue.”

Trevino v. Gates

99 F.3d 911 · Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · Nov 1, 1996

. § 1983 are entitled to qualified immunity if: (1) the “right” they allegedly violated was not “clearly established” at the time of the violation, or (2) if a reasonable [official] would have thought that the defendants’ … Under the first part of the qualified immunity test, Trevino must demonstrate that the policy violated clearly established law.

Karim Koubriti v. Richard Convertino

Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit · Feb 3, 2010

The court suggested that Convertino would only have qualified immunity for these claims. It did not analyze the claims under the qualified immunity standard, however. … On the other hand, government officials generally enjoy a presumption of qualified immunity from civil lawsuits, such that they are “shielded from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly

Tyrone Andrews v. J. M. Daw, in His Individual Capacity

201 F.3d 521 · Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit · Jan 27, 2000

Horton was involved in the alleged deprivation of Andrews’s constitutional rights, and granted summary judgment to Daw on the ground of qualified immunity. … In the alternative, Daw urges us to affirm the district court’s dismissal of Andrews's complaint on the ground of qualified immunity.

Broidy Capital v. Benomar

944 F.3d 436 · Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit · Dec 6, 2019

Plaintiffs bear the burden of establishing jurisdiction, here by establishing by a preponderance of the evidence that an exception to diplomatic immunity applies. … establishing that the foreign state is not entitled to immunity.

Woods v. Gamel

132 F.3d 1417 · Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit · Jan 14, 1998

clearly established. … Legislative immunity was established in the Speech and Debate Clause of the United States Constitution. U.S. Const. art. I, § 6, cl. 1.

Miles Guptill v. City of Chattanooga, Tenn.

Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit · Nov 26, 2025

Qualified Immunity Gunn argues that he is entitled to qualified immunity on Guptill’s § 1983 excessive force claim. … Qualified immunity protects government officials performing discretionary functions “from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights.”

Randall Mills v. Weakley Barnard

869 F.3d 473 · Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit · Aug 28, 2017

Qualified Immunity. … Brady violations are, of course, clearly established violations of constitutional rights.

California Attorneys for Criminal Justice Criminal Courts Bar Association James McNally James Johnson Bey v. James T. Butts, City of Santa Monica Chief of Police the City of Santa Monica Ray H. Cooper Shane Talbot, and Willie L. Williams, Chief of Police City of Los Angeles Raymond Bennett Michael Crosby, California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, James McNally James Johnson Bey v. James T. Butts, City of Santa Monica Chief of Police the City of Santa Monica Ray H. Cooper Shane Talbot City of Los Angeles v. Raymond Bennett Michael Crosby

195 F.3d 1039 · Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · Jan 8, 2000

The Right is Clearly Established 95 To be "clearly established" for the purpose of overcoming qualified immunity, "[t]he contours of the right must be sufficiently clear that a reasonable official would understand that what … It is not enough for the court simply to say that such interrogation tactics may be found to be coercive; for qualified immunity to be overcome, the law to that effect must be clearly established.

Tortu v. Lvmpd

Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · Mar 3, 2009

The determination of qualified immunity at step two is strictly a legal question of whether, even though the facts alleged by the plaintiff make out a constitutional violation, that constitutional right was not clearly established … The second question under Saucier is whether the right was “clearly established.” Id. at 202.

Cruz v. City Of Deming

138 F.4th 1257 · Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit · May 28, 2025

was clearly established.” … City of Wichita, where we found an officer violated clearly established law by shooting an individual “after it became clear he posed no threat.” 951 F.3d 1161, 1175 (10th Cir. 2020) (denying qualified immunity for an officer

Ortiz v. Jordan

562 U.S. 180 · Supreme Court of the United States · Jan 24, 2011

from suit if their conduct “d[id] not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.” … S. 304 (1995), that immediate appeal from the denial of summary judgment on a qualified immunity plea is available when the appeal presents a “purely legal issue,” illustratively, the determination of “what law was ‘clearly