Case law

Davis v. Holly

835 F.2d 1175 · Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit · Dec 30, 1987

Davis to have been clearly established in this jurisdiction. … Fitzgerald teaches that if a qualified-immunity defense is to be defeated on the ground that the constitutional violation was obvious, the constitutional rights in question must have been “clearly established” and must have

Kaltner v. Pebbles

628 F. Supp. 96 · District Court, E.D. Michigan · Jan 29, 1986

Before the court addresses substantive issues of § 1983 law, it must first decide whether the defendant may benefit from the doctrine of qualified immunity. Harlow v. … The rule of qualified immunity is that “government officials performing discretionary functions generally are shielded from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory

Thompson v. Clarke

848 F. Supp. 1452 · District Court, D. Nebraska · Apr 14, 1994

established” constitutional rights such that the prison officials are not protected by qualified immunity from an award of damages in a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action. … Plaintiffs correctly point out that for purposes of qualified immunity, in deciding whether something is “clearly established” the court is to examine whether there is a degree of factual correspondence between previous cases

Matthew Schantz v. Benny Deloach

Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit · Oct 26, 2021

Qualified Immunity Qualified immunity “completely protects government offi- cials performing discretionary functions from suit in their individ- ual capacities unless their conduct violates clearly established USCA11 … As discussed below, we agree with the district court’s deci- sion to dispose of Plaintiff’s § 1983 claim on the clearly established prong of the qualified immunity analysis.

Jacob Doe v. The University of North Carolina System

133 F.4th 305 · Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit · Apr 4, 2025

The two-part qualified immunity inquiry is well-settled. … We agree with the employee defendants that a right to cross-examination in this context has not, up to this point, been clearly enough established to deny them the protection of qualified immunity.

Miami-Dade County v. Pozos

242 So. 3d 1152 · District Court of Appeal of Florida · Feb 15, 2017

or qualified immunity. … before it, clearly established the County’s immunity from suit.

Dennis J. Domegan v. Michael v. Fair

859 F.2d 1059 · Court of Appeals for the First Circuit · Oct 20, 1988

The defense is unavailable when an official has violated a “clearly established” right. Harlow, 457 U.S. at 819 , 102 S.Ct. at 2738 . … If plaintiff’s right to be free from the claimed harm was clearly established — and in this case, we think that is so — then the defendants do not enjoy Harlow immunity. See, e.g., Bonitz, 804 F.2d at 166-68 .

Clark v. Milam

152 F.R.D. 66 · District Court, S.D. West Virginia · Dec 1, 1993

It is difficult to establish a defense is clearly insufficient. Spell v. McDaniel, 591 F.Supp. 1090, 1112 (E.D.N.C.1984). … Struck. 16 Failure to plead RICO allegations with sufficient probability to establish probable cause of causal connection. Struck. 17 No duty. Struck. 18 Sovereign immunity, qualified privilege.

Wagner v. County of Cattaraugus

866 F. Supp. 709 · District Court, W.D. New York · Oct 19, 1994

QUALIFIED IMMUNITY I also find that defendant Travis is not protected by qualified immunity. … Therefore, the first part of the qualified immunity consideration, that is, whether the police conduct here violated clearly established constitutional rights is not an issue in this case.

Carey v. Maloney

480 F. Supp. 2d 548 · District Court, D. Connecticut · Mar 30, 2007

Qualified immunity is warranted if either (1) the official’s actions did not violate clearly established law, or (2) even if the actions violated a clearly established law, the official was objectively reasonable in believing … Qualified Immunity as to Fox and Maloney As described above, “[t]he right of an individual not to be subjected to excessive force has long been clearly established.” Calamia v.

Doe v. S & S Consolidated I.S.D.

149 F. Supp. 2d 274 · District Court, E.D. Texas · Jun 26, 2001

As the Siegert court noted, “[o]nce a defendant pleads ... qualified immunity, ‘[[o]]n summary judgment, [a court] may appropriately determine, not only the currently applicable law, but whether the law was clearly established … Apart from Anderson’s admonition in the narrow qualified immunity context that “right[s][an] official is alleged to have violated must have been ‘clearly established’ in a more particularized ... sense,” Anderson notes too

Abilio Hernandez v. Jason Boles

949 F.3d 251 · Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit · Jan 30, 2020

We therefore turn to whether the law was clearly established. 2. Clearly Established Right This brings us to the clearly-established prong of the qualified immunity inquiry. … But, to overcome qualified immunity, the clearly established law must be specific enough “to put a reasonable officer on notice that the conduct at issue was unconstitutional.” Lewis, 779 F.3d at 417.

Marin v. McClincy

15 F. Supp. 3d 602 · District Court, W.D. Pennsylvania · Apr 11, 2014

Witmer, 526 F.3d 104, 111-112 (3d Cir.2008) (declining to analyze the Constitutional claims and granting qualified immunity under the “clearly established” prong); Robinson v. … Id. 5 Assuming for the sake of argument that plaintiffs Constitutional rights were violated, defendants are nevertheless entitled to qualified immunity because the rights were not clearly established.

Rothschild v. Grottenthaler

716 F. Supp. 796 · District Court, S.D. New York · Jul 12, 1989

Qualified Immunity Finally, the defendants argue that they are entitled to qualified immunity under the standard established in Harlow v. … Only the individual defendant, Charles Grotten-thaler, may be eligible for qualified immunity. The good faith immunity created by Harlow applies only to “government officials performing discretionary functions.”

Mary Lois Tillman v. Edward Coley, Jr., Individually and in His Official Capacity as Sheriff of Bleckley County, Ga.

886 F.2d 317 · Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit · Oct 18, 1989

The court reviews a district court’s denial of a summary judgment motion based on qualified immunity de novo. Waldrop v. Evans, 871 F.2d 1030 (11th Cir.1989). Qualified immunity is defined in Harlow v. … Sheriff Coley concedes that clearly established law requires probable cause to support an arrest, but he argues that the doctrine of qualified immunity shields government officials from civil liability “as long as their actions

Adams v. Glaser

138 F. Supp. 3d 727 · District Court, E.D. Louisiana · Oct 5, 2015

Individual Capacity—Qualified Immunity “Qualified immunity protects public officials from suit unless their conduct violates a clearly established constitutional right.” 90 As explained by the United States. … Supreme Court, “qualified immunity seeks to ensure that defendants reasonably can anticipate when their conduct may give rise to liability.” 91 “In essence, qualified immunity “avoid[s] excessive disruption of government”

Michael Sheets v. Ozean Moore

97 F.3d 164 · Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit · Oct 4, 1996

The court also refused to grant qualified immunity, concluding that at the time Moore rejected plaintiffs mail, plaintiffs right to receive such mail was clearly established. … A state official is entitled to qualified immunity to the extent that his conduct “does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.” Harlow v.

Robinson v. Brown

987 F. Supp. 1470 · District Court, S.D. Florida · Nov 13, 1997

QUALIFIED IMMUNITY AND EXCESSIVE FORCE. (i). Qualified Immunity. 6. The Supreme Court has developed an objective-reasonableness test for evaluating actions involving a government official’s claim of qualified immunity. … of that clearly-established law.

Klay v. Panetta

924 F. Supp. 2d 8 · District Court, District of Columbia · Feb 7, 2013

Qualified Immunity Qualified immunity protects government officials “from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of 5 … at 34, and that is the teaching of Iqbal. 556 U.S. at 677 (stating that to determine “whether there is a violation of clearly established right to overcome qualified immunity, purpose rather than knowledge is required”)

Estate of Gilliam Ex Rel. Waldroup v. City of Prattville

667 F. Supp. 2d 1276 · District Court, M.D. Alabama · Oct 26, 2009

Therefore, if the violated right was not clearly established under contemporary law, qualified immunity still applies. Id. at 201, 121 S.Ct. 2151 . *1288 2. … A constitutional right is clearly established for qualified-immunity purposes in one of three ways: (1) case law with indistinguishable facts that clearly establishes the right; (2) a broad statement of principle in the Constitution