United States Fourth Circuit

Denial of qualified immunity on plaintiffs' equal protection claims is reversed, and defendant police officer is entitled to immunity because he objectively should not have known that his conduct was unlawful when he directed the questioning of only black officers about discrimination against blacks. (Corrected summary)

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/22/2003
• Published 02/22/2003

Judges

• Before KING, Circuit Judge, HAMILTON, Senior Circuit Judge, and GREENBERG, Senior Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, sitting by designation.

Court

• United States Fourth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• ARGUED:  Steven Craig Lawrence, Anderson, Johnson, Lawrence, Butler & Bock, L.L.P., Fayetteville, North Carolina, for Appellant.  James Harvestus Locus, Jr., Fayetteville, North Carolina, for Appellees.  Joseph Michael McGuinness, The McGuinness Law Firm, Elizabethtown, North Carolina, for Amicus Curiae Police.   ON BRIEF:  William J. Johnson, National Association of Police Organizations, Inc., Washington, D.C., for Amicus Curiae Police.  Dennis Courtland Hayes, Hannibal G. Williams II Kemerer, Baltimore, Maryland, for Amicus Curiae NAACP.