United States Eighth Circuit

In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 suit brought by twenty-five protesters against St. Louis, its mayor, and various other officials and police officers, orders denying defendants qualified immunity on various claims are affirmed in part and reversed in part where: 1) denial of qualified immunity on Fourth Amendment claims was error as the actions of officers in entering a condemned building without a warrant to arrest the illegal occupants were not constitutionally unreasonable; 2) denial of qualified immunity on First Amendment claims based on a prior restraint theory was also error as plaintiffs were lawfully arrested for illegally occupying a condemned building, and their property was properly removed from that structure; 3) defendants failed to properly raise challenges to a denial of qualified immunity on strip search claims; and 4) denial of qualified immunity on another plaintiff's claims was proper.

Appellate Information

• Decided 11/14/2008
• Published 11/14/2008

Judges

• LOKEN, Chief Judge., Before LOKEN, Chief Judge, BYE and COLLOTON, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Eighth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Denise LeAnne Thomas, Asst. Atty. Gen., argued, St. Louis, MO, for appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Gary R. Sarachan, St. Louis, MO (Sheila Greenbaum, on the brief), for appellee.