TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Mar 26, 2021

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled yesterday that a woman shot by police while fleeing has the same Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable seizure as a person who is detained, the ABA Journal reports. The 5-3 ruling saw Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Justice Brett Kavanaugh join with the court’s more liberal justices. In the majority opinion, Roberts wrote, “The application of physical force to the body of a person with intent to restrain is a seizure, even if the force does not succeed in subduing the person.” However, he stressed the decision is narrow and does not apply to every physical contact between a government employee and a member of the public. “A seizure requires the use of force with intent to restrain. Accidental force will not qualify … Nor will force intentionally applied for some other purpose,” Roberts wrote.