{"ID":63068,"name":"City of Escondido v. Emmons","href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/cases\/2018\/17-1660","view_count":0,"docket_number":"17-1660","additional_docket_numbers":null,"manner_of_jurisdiction":"Writ of \u003Ci\u003Ecertiorari\u003C\/i\u003E","first_party":"City of Escondido, California, et al.","second_party":"Marty Emmons","timeline":[{"event":"Granted","dates":[1546840800],"href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/case_timeline\/case_timeline\/54408"},{"event":"Decided","dates":[1546840800],"href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/case_timeline\/case_timeline\/54409"}],"lower_court":{"ID":5,"name":"United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit","href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/taxonomy\/term\/5"},"facts_of_the_case":"\u003Cp\u003EIn April 2013, Escondido police officers responded to a domestic violence call, which ended in the arrest of Maggie Emmons\u2019s husband. He was later released. In May 2013, police received a 911 call about another domestic disturbance at the same residence. The same officer responded, along with a second officer, and the 911 dispatcher informed the officers that two children could be in the residence and attempts to return the 911 call had gone unanswered.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EWhen the officers arrived at the residence, they knocked on the door but received no answer. Through a side window, the officers spoke with Emmons wife and convinced her to open the door so they could perform a welfare check. As officers were speaking with her, an unidentified man told Emmons to back away from the window.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EA few minutes later, and after additional officers had arrived, a man opened the apartment door and came outside. One of the officers told the man not to close the door, but the man closed the door and tried to walk past the officer. The officer stopped him, took him to the ground, and handcuffed him. Police body-camera video shows that the officer did not hit the man or display any weapon, and that the man was not in any visible or audible pain either as a result of the takedown or while on the ground. Minutes later, officers helped the man up and arrested him for the misdemeanor offense of resisting arrest and delaying a police officer.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe man turned out to be Emmons\u2019s father, Marty Emmons. Marty Emmons sued all of the police officers present and the City of Escondido for use of excessive force, among other claims, in violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. The federal district court rejected the excessive force claim as to all but the officer who took down Marty Emmons. With respect to that officer, the district court found that the law was not clearly established that the officer could not act the way he did in that situation, so he was entitled to qualified immunity.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe Ninth Circuit reversed and remanded for trial on the excessive force claims against two of the officers, finding that the right to be free of excessive force was clearly established at the time of the events in question.\u003C\/p\u003E\n","question":"\u003Cp\u003EDid the Ninth Circuit properly analyze whether the law was clearly established as to the unlawfulness of the conduct of the two police officers in this situation?\u003C\/p\u003E\n","conclusion":"\u003Cp\u003EIn a per curiam opinion issued without argument, the Court reversed the Ninth Circuit as to one of the officers and vacated the lower court decision as to the other officer. The Ninth Circuit provided no explanation for reinstating the excessive force claim against an officer whom the district court determined through video evidence did not exert any force whatsoever against arrestee. As to the officer who physically stopped him, the Ninth Circuit\u2019s broad and unsupported statement that the right against excessive force is clearly established is insufficient to meet the requirement that a clearly established law \u201cmust be defined with specificity.\u201d In this case, the Ninth Circuit should have considered whether clearly established law prohibited the officers from exercising the force they used in these circumstances. By failing to analyze the the law with the requisite specificity, the Ninth Circuit erred in finding that the arresting officer was not entitled to qualified immunity.\u003C\/p\u003E\n","advocates":null,"oral_argument_audio":null,"citation":{"volume":"586","page":null,"year":"2019","href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/case_citation\/case_citation\/27643"},"decisions":[{"description":"The Ninth Circuit improperly analyzed whether the law was \u0022clearly established\u0022 in prohibiting the conduct of the police officers in this case.","votes":[{"member":{"ID":15086,"name":"John G. Roberts, Jr.","href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/people\/john_g_roberts_jr","view_count":0,"last_name":"Roberts","roles":[{"id":2730,"type":"scotus_justice","date_start":1127970000,"date_end":0,"appointing_president":"George W. 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