Carroll v. Carman (2014)
- Docket
- 14-212
- Decided
- 2014-01-01
Summary
Question: Should Officer Carroll be entitled to qualified immunity? Conclusion: Yes. In a per curiam opinion, the Court held that a government official is entitled to qualified immunity unless his actions violated a statutory or constitutional right that was clearly established at the time of the alleged conduct, which means that existing precedent must have placed the statutory or constitutional question beyond debate. In this case, there was no clearly established law that a police interaction must begin at the front door to be eligible for the "walk and talk" exception to the warrant requirement. The Court held that the case the appellate court cited as the basis for the rule was not sufficient and that the rule itself conflicted with the decisions of other federal and state courts, which is further evidence that the constitutional question was not beyond debate.