The U.S. Supreme court ruled excessive force order against police
The Supreme court ruling on Thursday uprighted with a New Mexico woman who filed a civil rights lawsuit after being shot by officers she had mistaken for carjackers. The U.S. Supreme Court availed people to sue police for excessive force.
Roxanne Torres was allowed to pursue her lawsuit based on a 5-3 decision. The lady accused New Mexico State Police officers Richard Williamson and Janice Madrid of violating the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment ban on illegal searches and seizures even though she had not been immediately detained or seized in the incident.
The excessive force order under the Fourth Amendment does not require the plaintiff to have been physically seized by law enforcement.
“We hold that the application of physical force to the body of a person with the intent to restrain is a seizure even if the person does not submit and yet not subdued,” conservative Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the ruling.
Roberts was joined in the decision by the court’s three liberals and one of his fellow conservatives, Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Three other conservatives justices dissented. The newest justice, conservative Amy Coney Barrett, did not participate because she had not yet joined the court when the case was argued in October.
