United States Second Circuit

Denial of qualified immunity to defendant-officer in a 1983 action alleging defendant-officer violated plaintiff's Fourth Amendment rights when he read a piece of her mail while searching her car with her consent during a traffic stop, is reversed where: 1) it is a Fourth Amendment violation when a police officer reads a suspect's private papers, the text of which is not in plain view, while conducting a search authorized solely by the suspect's generalized consent to search the area in which the papers are found; however, 2) since this right was not clearly established at the time of the search, defendant-officer is entitled to qualified immunity.

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/06/2013
• Published 03/06/2013

Judges

• JACOBS

Court

• United States Second Circuit

Counsel