The Court also concludes that Plaintiff’s excessive force claim against Haak is not barred by qualified immunity. The doctrine of qualified immunity provides immunity to law enforcement officers under 42 U.S. § 1983, unless the right the officers violated is “clearly established.” Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 648 (1987). For a right to be clearly established, “[t]he contours of the right must be sufficiently clear that a reasonable official would understand that what he is doing violates that right.” Anderson, 483 U.S. at 640. As to excessive force in general, the right to be free from an arrest made with objectively unreasonable force was clearly established in Graham. 490 U.S. at 395. “[T]he salient question is whether the state of the law at the time of the events at issue gave the officer fair warning that his alleged treatment of the plaintiff was unconstitutional. . . . [O]fficials can still be on notice that their conduct violates established law even in novel factual circumstances.” Jones v. Buchanan, 325 F.3d 520, 531 (4
Posted on: Wed, 03 Jul 2013 04:07:19 +0000
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