Hunter v. Bryant
- Decided
- December 16, 1991
- Docket
- 90-1440
- Status
- Published
- Jurisdiction
- Federal
Cited 3,271 timesNo negative treatment found in this library
What later courts said
- holding that officers are protected by qualified immunity where they possessed trustworthy, but ultimately incorrect evidence, that a suspect planned to assassinate the President — Sornberger v. City Of Knoxville (2006)
- holding that secret service officers were entitled to qualified immunity “if a reasonable officer could have believed that probable cause existed to arrest [the plaintiff]” — Montoute v. City of Sebring (1997)
- holding that the defendant officers were entitled to qualified immunity “if a reasonable officer could have believed that probable cause existed” to make the arrest — Jeffrey Swiecicki v. Jose Delgado (2006)
Each line is a later court’s own words about this case, not a summary. Read the opinion before relying on it.
How the opinion begins
Per Curiam.
On May 3,1985, respondent James V. Bryant delivered two photocopies of a handwritten letter to two administrative [*225] offices at the University of Southern California. The rambling letter referred to a plot to assassinate President Ronald Reagan by “Mr Image,” who was described as “Communist white men within the 'National Council of Churches.’” The letter stated that “Mr Image wants to murder President Reagan on his up and coming trip to Germany,” that “Mr Image had conspired with a large number of U. S. officials in the plot to murder President Reagan” and others, and that “Mr Image (NCC) still plans on murdering the President on his trip to Germany in May, 1985.” See Bryant v. United States Treasury Department, Secret Service, 903 F. 2d 717, 724-727 (CA9 1990) (Bryant’s letter). President Reagan was traveling in Germany at the time.
A campus police sergeant telephoned the Secret Service, and agent Brian Hunter responded to the call. After reading the letter, agent Hunter interviewed university employees. One identified James Bryant as the man who had delivered the letter and reported that Bryant had “told her ‘[h]e should have been assassinated in Bonn.’” Another employee said that the man who delivered the letter made statements about “'bloody coups’” and “‘assassination,’” and said something about “ ‘across the throat’ ” while moving his hand horizontally across his throat to simulate a cutting action. Id., at 718-719.
Statutes cited
Cite this
Hunter v. Bryant, 502 U.S. 224 (1991)Read the full opinion
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