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Court Considers Pursuit Issue

on February 27, 2007

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday from attorneys representing a teenager who was paralyzed when his car was nudged off the road by a sheriff’s deputy. A Coweta County (Geo.) deputy spotted Victor Harris traveling 73 mph in a 55 mph zone and tried to pull him over, but he sped off. A dashboard camera shows the chase that hit speeds of 90 mph and ended with the crash. [more]

Harris’ family sued the county, saying they violated his civil rights by intentionally hitting his car and sending it off the road. They say the deputy should have simply obtained the license plate number and later cited the driver. The case has not gone to trial, but has been debated in the lower courts on the issue of whether the deputies being sued have immunity, and if the judge should have made a summary judgement for the plaintiffs, or dismissed the case against them.

During Monday’s arguments the court justices acknowledged having seen the video, and several were impressed with how dangerous it appeared. Justice Antonin Scalia remarked it was “the scariest chase I’ve seen since ‘The French Connection.’?”, a movie that came out in 1971.

A federal court in Atlanta ruled for the family in the lawsuit, and a appeals court upheld that ruling, leading to an appeal by the county and the Supreme Court case.

The issues to be decided are:

  • Whether a law enforcement officer’s conduct is “objectively reasonable” under the Fourth Amendment when the officer makes a split-second decision to terminate a high-speed pursuit by bumping the fleeing suspect’s vehicle with his push bumper, because the suspect had demonstrated that he would continue to drive in a reckless and dangerous manner that put the lives of innocent persons at serious risk of death.

  • Whether, at the time of the incident, the law was “clearly established” when neither this Court nor any circuit court, including the Eleventh Circuit, had ruled the Fourth Amendment is violated when a law enforcement officer uses deadly force to protect the lives of innocent persons from the risk of dangerous and reckless vehicular flight.

    Download (pdf) a copy of the appellate court decision here.

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