United States Supreme Court

In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 suit brought by residents arising from a police search and detention under circumstances in which police obtained a valid warrant to search a house, but were unaware that the suspects being sought had previously moved out, a court of appeals' ruling against petitioners-officers is reversed where respondents' constitutional rights were not violated when petitioners ordered Caucasian respondents out of bed while they were naked, despite the fact that the suspects being sought were of a different race. The orders by the police to the occupants, in the context of the lawful search in this case, were permissible, and perhaps necessary, to protect the safety of the deputies and the residents' detention was not unreasonable either.

Appellate Information

• Decided 05/21/2007
• Published 05/21/2007

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• United States Supreme Court

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