Cengage Advantage Books: Business Law Today, The Essentials 10th Edition by Roger LeRoy Miller

تمرين 13

Messerschmidt v. Millender
FACTS The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department was protecting a woman from Jerry Ray Bowen when he tried to kill her with a sawed-off shotgun. The woman told the police that she and Bowen used to date, that Bowen was a gang member, and that she thought Bowen was staying at the home of Augusta Millender, his foster mother. After investigating the incident further, the police prepared a warrant to search the foster mother's home for all guns and gang-related material, and a judge approved it. When police officers, including Curt Messerschmidt, served the search warrant, they discovered that Bowen was not at the home but searched it anyway. Millender sued individual police officers in federal court for subjecting her to an illegal search. A federal appellate court held that the police lacked probable cause for such a broad search and that the police officers could be held personally liable. The police officers appealed. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari to determine whether the police officers were immune from personal liability.
ISSUE Assuming that the search violated the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, are the police officers immune from liability?
DECISION Yes. The United States Supreme Court reversed the decision of the federal appellate court, granting the officers immunity from liability.
REASON The doctrine of qualified immunity "gives government officials breathing room to make reasonable but mistaken judgments." The Court explained that immunity depends on whether an official "acted in an objectively reasonable manner." Here, the police officers acted reasonably, in part, because a neutral judge approved the search warrant. Moreover, a reasonable police officer could have believed that the warrant was proper. For example, even if the warrant was too broad because it authorized a search for all guns rather than just the one Bowen fired, a reasonable police officer could conclude that Bowen had other guns. After all, the Court reasoned, he owned a sawed-off shotgun, he was a known gang member, and he had just tried to kill a woman for calling the police. Similarly, one could reasonably conclude that there was probable cause to search for gang-related material because it would be helpful in prosecuting Bowen for attacking his ex-girlfriend. Finally, the officers conducted a detailed investigation and had the warrant application reviewed three times before submitting it to the judge.
CRITICAL THINKING-Legal Consideration How would police officers behave if they could always be held personally liable for executing unconstitutional warrants? Would they be more or less inclined to apply for and execute search warrants? Explain.