Kingsley v. Hendrickson
- Decided
- June 22, 2015
- Docket
- 14-6368
- Status
- Published
- Jurisdiction
- Federal
Cited 4,087 timesNo negative treatment found in this library
What later courts said
- holding that the Fourteenth Amendment’s objective reasonableness standard governs excessive-force claims brought by pretrial detainees — Barton Ex Rel. Estate of Barton v. Taber (2016)
- holding that a pretrial detainee in the Fourteenth Amendment context "must show only that the force purposely or knowingly used against him was objectively unreasonable" — Piazza v. Jefferson Cnty. (2019)
- holding that there are different standards for sentenced prisoners and pretrial detainees in the case of excessive force claims — Melvin Phillips v. Sheriff of Cook County (2016)
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
Justice BREYERdelivered the opinion of the Court.
In this case, an individual detained in a jail prior to trial brought a claim under Rev. Stat. § 1979, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, against several jail officers, alleging that they used excessive force against him, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause. The officers concede that they intended to use the force that they used. But the parties disagree about whether the force used was excessive.
The question before us is whether, to prove an excessive force claim, a pretrial detainee must show that the officers were subjectivelyaware that their use of force was unreasonable, or only that the officers' use of that force was objectivelyunreasonable. We conclude that the latter standard is the correct one.
Statutes cited
Cite this
Kingsley v. Hendrickson, 576 U.S. 389 (2015)Read the full opinion
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