Williams v. Sandel

Linked with:

• Sandel v. Williams

Issue: (1) Whether police officers’ conduct is “objectively unreasonable” and therefore violates a clearly unarmed misdemeanant’s right to be free from excessive force under the Fourth Amendment when the officers stunned the misdemeanant thirty-seven times with a Taser, without warning, and severely beat him with batons, while incapacitated, rather than securing him; and (2) whether a court errs when it fails to consider the second prong of Saucier v. Katz if the plaintiff in a Section 1983 action can establish that a particularized constitutional right is clearly established in other Circuits and its own, especially considering this Court’s recent holding in Pearson v. Callahan , that the prongs need not be considered sequentially?

Briefs and Documents

Certiorari-stage documents

• Opinion below (6th Cir.)
• Petition for certiorari
• Brief in opposition