Messerschmidt v. Millender
Headline: Court grants police officers immunity for a home search that seized guns and gang items, reversing a lower court and making it harder for homeowners to get damages after warrant-approved searches.
Holding: The Court held the officers were entitled to qualified immunity because a warrant reviewed by supervisors, a prosecutor, and a magistrate was not so clearly lacking probable cause that any reasonable officer would have known it invalid.
- Makes it harder for homeowners to collect damages after warrant-approved searches.
- Gives police more protection when they rely on magistrates, supervisors, and prosecutors.
- Leaves open limits on searches for gang materials, per a Justice’s partial dissent.
Summary
Background
Police officers sought a warrant after a woman named Shelly Kelly reported that her ex, Jerry Bowen, attacked her and fired a sawed-off shotgun at her car. Detectives used police records and a gang database to link Bowen to an address where Augusta Millender and family lived. The search warrant authorized looking for all firearms and any gang-related items at that address. The Millenders sued under federal law, saying the warrant lacked probable cause and seeking damages. Lower courts disagreed about immunity: a district court found the warrant overbroad and denied immunity; a Ninth Circuit en banc agreed; the Supreme Court agreed to review only the immunity question.
Reasoning
The key question was whether the officers were entitled to qualified immunity even if the warrant was wrong. The Court explained that immunity protects officials unless the violation was clearly established and that a magistrate’s approval is strong evidence officers acted reasonably. The Court concluded that given Bowen’s use of a sawed-off shotgun, his gang membership, prior violent and firearms convictions, the danger to the victim, and approvals by supervisors and a prosecutor, it would not have been plainly unreasonable for an officer to believe the warrant covered all guns and gang evidence. The Court therefore reversed the denial of damages against the officers.
Real world impact
This ruling makes it harder for people searched under magistrate-approved warrants to recover damages from officers who relied on those warrants. Police gain more protection when they investigate, get supervisory and prosecutor sign-off, and obtain a magistrate’s approval. The decision does not finally resolve whether the warrant itself was lawful; it addresses only officers’ personal liability.
Dissents or concurrances
Justice Kagan agreed immunity should apply to the firearms search but disagreed about gang materials and would deny immunity for that part. Justice Sotomayor dissented, saying the search was a prohibited general search and that officers themselves believed the crime was a domestic, not gang, matter.
Opinions in this case:
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