483 F. Supp. 390 - Morrison v. Fox’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Good faith is an affirmative defense for police officers charged in a civil rights action under 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983 with the violation of plaintiffs constitutional rights. If plaintiff proves that police officer made an arrest without probable cause, conducted a search violative of the fourth amendment, or otherwise violated his constitutional rights, the officer still is not liable for damages if he proves good faith and reasonable belief in the validity of the arrest, search, or other unconstitutional act. To prevail in this defense, the police officer need not allege nor prove probable cause to arrest or search in the constitutional sense or that any other act was constitutional. Rather the officer must prove: (1) that he believed, in good faith, that his conduct was lawful (subjective standard) and (2) that his belief was reasonable (objective standard). Thus if a factfinder decides that a police officer reasonably believed in good faith that his conduct was constitutional, the factfinder must decide in favor of the officer, even through his conduct in fact was violative of plaintiffs constitutional rights. As a matter of constitutional law and common sense, a law enforcement officer is entitled to this defense and this protection, [citations omitted]”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Diehl v. Gavin