• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
  • We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.

SCOTUS lets federal officers off civil liability for attempted murder and false imprisonment

Raftina

Raftina

Member
Jun 27, 2020
3,724
The petitions are Mohamud vs Weyker and Byrd vs Lamb. The US Supreme Court did not make a decision, but it denied the petitions to review the circuit court rulings. This means within the 5th Circuit (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi) and 8th Circuit (middle states above Texas), the controlling rule is as established in these two cases.

ij.org

Federal Police Immunity Cert. Petitions - Institute for Justice

When police violate the rights of Americans, as they did to Kevin Byrd and Hamdi Mahmoud, they should be held accountable. IJ is asking the Supreme Court to take both of these cases and ensure Americans have an avenue to hold law enforcement accountable.
ij.org ij.org

Does a federal badge allow a police officer to violate your constitutional rights with absolute impunity? The answer is "yes," according to two U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals in three different cases brought by a Somali refugee who was in her teens, a 70-year-old Vietnam veteran and a small business owner/mechanic. Nearly 60 million Americans now live in states where the courts offer absolute immunity to federal officers who violate someone's constitutional rights. As one federal judge recently lamented, "Private citizens who are brutalized—even killed—by rogue federal officers can find little solace" in the current accountability framework.

Hamdi Mohamud escaped war-torn Somalia when she was a child. As a teenager in Minnesota, she found herself caught in a web of well-documented lies and manipulation spun by St. Paul police officer Heather Weyker. In 2011, Weyker was deputized as part of a federal task force. At that time, the officer created outright lies to have Hamdi arrested and put in jail, even though Hamdi was innocent of any crime and Weyker had no reason to believe otherwise. Nonetheless, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Hamdi cannot sue Weyker for ruining so much of her life through her unconstitutional acts for one simple and outrageous reason: Weyker performed all her misdeeds while holding a federal badge.

The 5th Circuit reached the same conclusion in two cases out of Texas. First, the court ruled that José Oliva—who was assaulted in an unprovoked attack caught on video as he entered a Veterans Affairs hospital—could not sue the officers who attacked him because they were federal officers.

Finally, the court decided that Kevin Byrd could not sue Department of Homeland Security Agent Ray Lamb. As captured by a security camera, Lamb stopped Kevin in a parking lot, pointed a gun at him, threatened to "blow his head off"—even going so far as to pull the trigger of his loaded gun that jammed—and used his federal badge to have Kevin arrested, even though Kevin did nothing illegal. Lamb was trying to prevent Kevin from investigating a drunk driving incident involving the agent's son.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

tl;dr
Mohamud vs Weyker: A police officer deputized by the federal government made up a sex-trafficking ring and imprisoned a Black Somalian refugee girl (who was 16 at the time) for 2 years. The 8th Circuit held that the police officer had absolute immunity from being sued for damages for the false imprisonment.

Byrd vs Lamb: A DHS agent tried to kill a man (as in pointed a gun at him and pulled the trigger) because the man was investigating the agent's son for drunk driving. The 5gh Circuit held that the DHS agend had absolute immunity from being sued for damages for his murder attempt.

Notes
The Supreme Court denied the petitions without a ruling. This means within the 5th and 8th Circuits, federal agents now have absolute immunity from civil lawsuits. The immunity is not yet nationwide.

The immunity is from being sued for civil damages. Technically, the federal government can still hold them accountable through internal discipline and/or criminal charges. Whether the federal government actually does so is another matter.

Congress can waive immunity for federal agents. This is something the Democrats can fix by controlling the elected branches. Add this to the pile of garbage that Democratic representatives need to be pressed to fix.
 
Last edited:
BWoog

BWoog

Member
Oct 27, 2017
38,479
How can you even argue shit like this in the framework of the Consitution?
 
CarbonCrush

CarbonCrush

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,145
I take it the police/enforcement agency can however still be sued in these cases, just not individual personally?
 
Nepenthe

Nepenthe

When the music hits, you feel no pain.
Administrator
Oct 25, 2017
21,023
Yep, this behavior can definitely be reformed by more money and some seminars.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.