Countyof Sacramento v. Lewis, 523 U.S. 833 (1998)

Published on May 2016 | Categories: Types, Business/Law, Court Filings | Downloads: 99 | Comments: 0 | Views: 371
of 31
Download PDF   Embed   Report

Filed: 1998-05-26Precedential Status: PrecedentialCitations: 523 U.S. 833, 118 S. Ct. 1708, 140 L. Ed. 2d 1043, 1998 U.S. LEXIS 3404Docket: 96-1337Supreme Court Database id: 1997-071

Comments

Content

523 U.S. 833
118 S.Ct. 1708
140 L.Ed.2d 1043

COUNTY OF SACRAMENTO, et al., Petitioners,
v.
Teri LEWIS and Thomas Lewis, personal representative
of the Estate of Philip Lewis, Deceased.
No. 96-1337.

Supreme Court of the United States
Argued Dec. 9, 1997.
Decided May 26, 1998.

Syllabus *
After petitioner James Smith, a county sheriff's deputy, responded to a call
along with another officer, Murray Stapp, the latter returned to his patrol
car and saw a motorcycle approaching at high speed, driven by Brian
Willard, and carrying Philip Lewis, respondents' decedent, as a passenger.
Stapp turned on his rotating lights, yelled for the cycle to stop, and pulled
his car closer to Smith's in an attempt to pen the cycle in, but Willard
maneuvered between the two cars and sped off. Smith immediately
switched on his own emergency lights and siren and began high-speed
pursuit. The chase ended after the cycle tipped over. Smith slammed on
his brakes, but his car skidded into Lewis, causing massive injuries and
death. Respondents brought this action under 42 U.S.C. §1983, alleging a
deprivation of Lewis's Fourteenth Amendment substantive due process
right to life. The District Court granted summary judgment for Smith, but
the Ninth Circuit reversed, holding, inter alia, that the appropriate degree
of fault for substantive due process liability for high-speed police pursuits
is deliberate indifference to, or reckless disregard for, a person's right to
life and personal security.
Held: A police officer does not violate substantive due process by causing
death through deliberate or reckless indifference to life in a high-speed
automobile chase aimed at apprehending a suspected offender. Pp. ________.

(a) The "more-specific-provision'' rule of Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S.
386, 395, 109 S.Ct. 1865, 1871, 104 L.Ed.2d 443, does not bar
respondents' suit. Graham simply requires that if a constitutional claim is
covered by a specific constitutional provision, the claim must be analyzed
under the standard appropriate to that specific provision, not under
substantive due process. E.g., Lanier v. United States, 520 U.S. 259, ----,
n. 7, 117 S.Ct. 1219, 1228, n. 7, 137 L.Ed.2d 432 (1997). Substantive due
process analysis is therefore inappropriate here only if, as amici argue,
respondents' claim is "covered by'' the Fourth Amendment. It is not. That
Amendment covers only "searches and seizures,'' neither of which took
place here. No one suggests that there was a search, and this Court's cases
foreclose finding a seizure, since Smith did not terminate Lewis's freedom
of movement through means intentionally applied. E.g., Brower v. County
of Inyo, 489 U.S. 593, 597, 109 S.Ct. 1378, 1381, 103 L.Ed.2d 628. Pp.
____-____.
(b) Respondents' allegations are insufficient to state a substantive due
process violation. Protection against governmental arbitrariness is the core
of due process, e.g., Hurtado v. California, 110 U.S. 516, 527, 4 S.Ct.
111, 116-117, 28 L.Ed. 232, including substantive due process, see, e.g.,
Daniels v. Williams, 474 U.S. 327, 331, 106 S.Ct. 662, 665, 88 L.Ed.2d
662, but only the most egregious executive action can be said to be
"arbitrary'' in the constitutional sense, e.g., Collins v. Harker Heights, 503
U.S. 115, 129, 112 S.Ct. 1061, 1071, 117 L.Ed.2d 261; the cognizable
level of executive abuse of power is that which shocks the conscience,
e.g., id., at 128, 112 S.Ct., at 1070; Rochin v. California, 342 U.S. 165,
172-173, 72 S.Ct. 205, 209-210, 96 L.Ed. 183. The conscience-shocking
concept points clearly away from liability, or clearly toward it, only at the
ends of the tort law's culpability spectrum: Liability for negligently
inflicted harm is categorically beneath the constitutional due process
threshold, see, e.g., Daniels v. Williams, 474 U.S., at 328, 106 S.Ct., at
663, while conduct deliberately intended to injure in some way
unjustifiable by any government interest is the sort of official action most
likely to rise to the conscience-shocking level, see id., at 331, 106 S.Ct., at
665. Whether that level is reached when culpability falls between
negligence and intentional conduct is a matter for closer calls. The Court
has recognized that deliberate indifference is egregious enough to state a
substantive due process claim in one context, that of deliberate
indifference to the medical needs of pretrial detainees, see City of Revere
v. Massachusetts Gen. Hospital, 463 U.S. 239, 244, 103 S.Ct. 2979, 2983,
77 L.Ed.2d 605; cf. Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 104, 97 S.Ct. 285,
291, 50 L.Ed.2d 251, but rules of due process are not subject to
mechanical application in unfamiliar territory, and the need to preserve the
constitutional proportions of substantive due process demands an exact
analysis of context and circumstances before deliberate indifference is

condemned as conscience-shocking, cf. Betts v. Brady, 316 U.S. 455, 462,
62 S.Ct. 1252, 1256, 86 L.Ed. 1595. Attention to the markedly different
circumstances of normal pretrial custody and high-speed law enforcement
chases shows why the deliberate indifference that shocks in the one
context is less egregious in the other. In the circumstances of a high-speed
chase aimed at apprehending a suspected offender, where unforeseen
circumstances demand an instant judgment on the part of an officer who
feels the pulls of competing obligations, only a purpose to cause harm
unrelated to the legitimate object of arrest will satisfy the shocks-theconscience test. Such chases with no intent to harm suspects physically or
to worsen their legal plight do not give rise to substantive due process
liability. Cf. Whitley v. Albers, 475 U.S. 312, 320-321, 106 S.Ct. 1078,
1084-1085, 89 L.Ed.2d 251. The fault claimed on Smith's part fails to
meet this test. Smith was faced with a course of lawless behavior for
which the police were not to blame. They had done nothing to cause
Willard's high-speed driving in the first place, nothing to excuse his
flouting of the commonly understood police authority to control traffic,
and nothing (beyond a refusal to call off the chase) to encourage him to
race through traffic at breakneck speed. Willard's outrageous behavior
was practically instantaneous, and so was Smith's instinctive response.
While prudence would have repressed the reaction, Smith's instinct was to
do his job, not to induce Willard's lawlessness, or to terrorize, cause harm,
or kill. Prudence, that is, was subject to countervailing enforcement
considerations, and while Smith exaggerated their demands, there is no
reason to believe that they were tainted by an improper or malicious
motive. Pp. ____-____.
98 F.3d 434, reversed.
SOUTER, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which REHNQUIST,
C. J., and O'CONNOR, KENNEDY, GINSBURG, and BREYER, JJ.,
joined. REHNQUIST, C. J., filed a concurring opinion. KENNEDY, J.,
filed a concurring opinion, in which O'CONNOR, J., joined. BREYER, J.,
filed a concurring opinion. STEVENS, J., filed an opinion concurring in
the judgment. SCALIA, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment, in
which THOMAS, J., joined.
Terence J. Cassidy, Sacramento, CA, for petitioners.
Paul J. Hedlund, Los Angeles, CA, for respondents.
Justice SOUTER delivered the opinion of the Court.

1

The issue in this case is whether a police officer violates the Fourteenth
Amendment's guarantee of substantive due process by causing death through
deliberate or reckless indifference to life in a high-speed automobile chase
aimed at apprehending a suspected offender. We answer no, and hold that in
such circumstances only a purpose to cause harm unrelated to the legitimate
object of arrest will satisfy the element of arbitrary conduct shocking to the
conscience, necessary for a due process violation.

2

* On May 22, 1990, at approximately 8:30 p.m., petitioner James Everett
Smith, a Sacramento County sheriff's deputy, along with another officer,
Murray Stapp, responded to a call to break up a fight. Upon returning to his
patrol car, Stapp saw a motorcycle approaching at high speed. It was operated
by 18-year-old Brian Willard and carried Philip Lewis, respondents' 16-year-old
decedent, as a passenger. Neither boy had anything to do with the fight that
prompted the call to the police.

3

Stapp turned on his overhead rotating lights, yelled to the boys to stop, and
pulled his patrol car closer to Smith's, attempting to pen the motorcycle in.
Instead of pulling over in response to Stapp's warning lights and commands,
Willard slowly maneuvered the cycle between the two police cars and sped off.
Smith immediately switched on his own emergency lights and siren, made a
quick turn, and began pursuit at high speed. For 75 seconds over a course of 1.3
miles in a residential neighborhood, the motorcycle wove in and out of
oncoming traffic, forcing two cars and a bicycle to swerve off of the road. The
motorcycle and patrol car reached speeds up to 100 miles an hour, with Smith
following at a distance as short as 100 feet; at that speed, his car would have
required 650 feet to stop.

4

The chase ended after the motorcycle tipped over as Willard tried a sharp left
turn. By the time Smith slammed on his brakes, Willard was out of the way, but
Lewis was not. The patrol car skidded into him at 40 miles an hour, propelling
him some 70 feet down the road and inflicting massive injuries. Lewis was
pronounced dead at the scene.

5

Respondents, Philip Lewis's parents and the representatives of his estate,
brought this action under Rev. Stat. §1979, 42 U.S.C. §1983 against petitioners
Sacramento County, the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department and Deputy
Smith, alleging a deprivation of Philip Lewis's Fourteenth Amendment
substantive due process right to life.1 The District Court granted summary
judgment for Smith, reasoning that even if he violated the Constitution, he was
entitled to qualified immunity, because respondents could point to no "state or
federal opinion published before May, 1990, when the alleged misconduct took
place, that supports [their] view that [the decedent had] a Fourteenth
Amendment substantive due process right in the context of high speed police
pursuits.'' App. to Pet. for Cert. 52.2

6

The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed, holding that "the
appropriate degree of fault to be applied to high-speed police pursuits is
deliberate indifference to, or reckless disregard for, a person's right to life and
personal security,'' 98 F.3d 434, 441 (1996), and concluding that "the law
regarding police liability for death or injury caused by an officer during the
course of a high-speed chase was clearly established'' at the time of Philip
Lewis's death, id., at 445. Since Smith apparently disregarded the Sacramento
County Sheriff's Department's General Order on police pursuits, the Ninth
Circuit found a genuine issue of material fact that might be resolved by a
finding that Smith's conduct amounted to deliberate indifference:

7

"The General Order requires an officer to communicate his intention to pursue
a vehicle to the sheriff's department dispatch center. But defendants concede
that Smith did not contact the dispatch center. The General Order requires an
officer to consider whether the seriousness of the offense warrants a chase at
speeds in excess of the posted limit. But here, the only apparent "offense' was
the boys' refusal to stop when another officer told them to do so. The General
Order requires an officer to consider whether the need for apprehension
justifies the pursuit under existing conditions. Yet Smith apparently only
"needed' to apprehend the boys because they refused to stop. The General
Order requires an officer to consider whether the pursuit presents unreasonable
hazards to life and property. But taking the facts here in the light most favorable
to plaintiffs, there existed an unreasonable hazard to Lewis's and Willard's lives.
The General Order also directs an officer to discontinue a pursuit when the
hazards of continuing outweigh the benefits of immediate apprehension. But
here, there was no apparent danger involved in permitting the boys to escape.
There certainly was risk of harm to others in continuing the pursuit.'' Id., at 442.

8

Accordingly, the Court of Appeals reversed the summary judgment in favor of
Smith and remanded for trial.

9

We granted certiorari, 520 U.S. 259, 117 S.Ct. 1219, (1997), to resolve a
conflict among the Circuits over the standard of culpability on the part of a law
enforcement officer for violating substantive due process in a pursuit case.
Compare 98 F.3d, at 441 ("deliberate indifference'' or "reckless disregard''),3
with Evans v. Avery, 100 F.3d 1033, 1038 (C.A.1 1996) ("shocks the
conscience''), cert. denied, 520 U.S. ----, 117 S.Ct. 1693, 137 L.Ed.2d 820
(1997), Williams v. Denver City, 99 F.3d 1009, 1014-1015 (C.A.10 1996)
(same), Fagan v. Vineland, 22 F.3d 1296, 1306-1307 (C.A.3 1994) (en banc)
(same), Temkin v. Frederick County Commissioners, 945 F.2d 716, 720 (C.A.4
1991) (same), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 1095, 112 S.Ct. 1172, 117 L.Ed.2d 417
(1992), and Checki v. Webb, 785 F.2d 534, 538 (C.A.5 1986) (same). We now
reverse.
II

10

Our prior cases have held the provision that " [n]o State shall . . . deprive any
person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law,'' U.S. Const.,
Amdt. 14, §1, to "guarante[e] more than fair process,'' Washington v.
Glucksberg, 521 U.S. ----, ----, 117 S.Ct. 2258, 2267, 138 L.Ed.2d 772 (1997),
and to cover a substantive sphere as well, "barring certain government actions
regardless of the fairness of the procedures used to implement them,'' Daniels v.
Williams, 474 U.S. 327, 331, 106 S.Ct., at 665 (1986); see also Zinermon v.
Burch, 494 U.S. 113, 125, 110 S.Ct. 975, 983, 108 L.Ed.2d 100 (1990) (noting
that substantive due process violations are actionable under §1983). The
allegation here that Lewis was deprived of his right to life in violation of
substantive due process amounts to a such claim, that under the circumstances
described earlier, Smith's actions in causing Lewis's death were an abuse of
executive power so clearly unjustified by any legitimate objective of law
enforcement as to be barred by the Fourteenth Amendment. Cf. Collins v.
Harker Heights, 503 U.S. 115, 126, 112 S.Ct. 1061, 1069, 117 L.Ed.2d 261
(1992) (noting that the Due Process Clause was intended to prevent
government officials ""from abusing [their] power, or employing it as an
instrument of oppression''') (quoting DeShaney v. Winnebago County Dept. of
Social Servs., 489 U.S. 189, 196, 109 S.Ct. 998, 1003, 103 L.Ed.2d 249 (1989))
(quoting Davidson v. Cannon, 474 U.S. 344, 348, 106 S.Ct. 668, 670-671, 88
L.Ed.2d 677 (1986)). 4

11

Leaving aside the question of qualified immunity, which formed the basis for
the District Court's dismissal of their case,5 respondents face two principal
objections to their claim. The first is that its subject is necessarily governed by
a more definite provision of the Constitution (to the exclusion of any possible
application of substantive due process); the second, that in any event the
allegations are insufficient to state a substantive due process violation through
executive abuse of power. Respondents can meet the first objection, but not the
second.

12

* Because we have "always been reluctant to expand the concept of substantive
due process,'' Collins v. Harker Heights, supra, at 125, 112 S.Ct., at 1068, we
held in Graham v. Connor that " [w]here a particular amendment provides an
explicit textual source of constitutional protection against a particular sort of
government behavior, that Amendment, not the more generalized notion of
substantive due process, must be the guide for analyzing these claims.'' Albright
v. Oliver, 510 U.S. 266, 273, 114 S.Ct. 807, 813, 127 L.Ed.2d 114 (1994)
(plurality opinion of REHNQUIST, C.J.) (quoting Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S.
386, 395, 109 S.Ct. 1865, 1871, 104 L.Ed.2d 443 (1989)) (internal quotation
marks omitted). Given the rule in Graham, we were presented at oral argument
with the threshold issue raised in several amicus briefs,6 whether facts
involving a police chase aimed at apprehending suspects can ever support a due
process claim. The argument runs that in chasing the motorcycle, Smith was
attempting to make a seizure within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment,
and, perhaps, even that he succeeded when Lewis was stopped by the fatal
collision. Hence, any liability must turn on an application of the reasonableness
standard governing searches and seizures, not the due process standard of
liability for constitutionally arbitrary executive action. See Graham v. Connor,
supra, at 395, 109 S.Ct., at 1871 ("all claims that law enforcement officers
have used excessive force-deadly or not-in the course of an arrest, investigatory
stop, or other "seizure' of a free citizen should be analyzed under the Fourth
Amendment and its "reasonableness' standard, rather than under a "substantive
due process' approach''); Albright v. Oliver, 510 U.S., at 276, 114 S.Ct., at 814
(GINSBURG, J., concurring); id., at 288, n. 2, 114 S.Ct., at 820 (SOUTER, J.,
concurring in judgment). One Court of Appeals has indeed applied the rule of
Graham to preclude the application of principles of generalized substantive due
process to a motor vehicle passenger's claims for injury resulting from reckless
police pursuit. See Mays v. East St. Louis, 123 F.3d 999, 1002-1003 (C.A.7
1997).

13

The argument is unsound. Just last Term, we explained that Graham

14

"does not hold that all constitutional claims relating to physically abusive
government conduct must arise under either the Fourth or Eighth Amendments;
rather, Graham simply requires that if a constitutional claim is covered by a
specific constitutional provision, such as the Fourth or Eighth Amendment, the
claim must be analyzed under the standard appropriate to that specific
provision, not under the rubric of substantive due process.'' United States v.
Lanier, 520 U.S. 259, ----, n. 7, 117 S.Ct. 1219, 1228, n. 7, 137 L.Ed.2d 432
(1997).

15

Substantive due process analysis is therefore inappropriate in this case only if
respondents' claim is "covered by'' the Fourth Amendment. It is not.

16

The Fourth Amendment covers only "searches and seizures,'' U.S. Const.,
Amdt. 4, neither of which took place here. No one suggests that there was a
search, and our cases foreclose finding a seizure. We held in California v.
Hodari D., 499 U.S. 621, 626, 111 S.Ct. 1547, 1550-1551, 113 L.Ed.2d 690
(1991), that a police pursuit in attempting to seize a person does not amount to a
"seizure'' within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. And in Brower v.
County of Inyo, 489 U.S. 593, 596-597, 109 S.Ct. 1378, 1381, 103 L.Ed.2d 628
(1989), we explained "that a Fourth Amendment seizure does not occur
whenever there is a governmentally caused termination of an individual's
freedom of movement (the innocent passerby), nor even whenever there is a
governmentally caused and governmentally desired termination of an
individual's freedom of movement (the fleeing felon), but only when there is a
governmental termination of freedom of movement through means
intentionally applied. '' We illustrated the point by saying that no Fourth
Amendment seizure would take place where a "pursuing police car sought to
stop the suspect only by the show of authority represented by flashing lights
and continuing pursuit,'' but accidentally stopped the suspect by crashing into
him. Id., at 597, 109 S.Ct., at 1381-1382. That is exactly this case. See, e.g.,
Campbell v. White, 916 F.2d 421, 423 (C.A.7 1990) (following Brower and
finding no seizure where a police officer accidentally struck and killed a fleeing
motorcyclist during a high-speed pursuit), cert. denied, 499 U.S. 922, 111 S.Ct.
1314, 113 L.Ed.2d 248 (1991). Graham's more-specific-provision rule is
therefore no bar to respondents' suit. See, e.g., Frye v. Akron, 759 F.Supp. 1320,
1324 (N.D.Ind.1991) (parents of a motorcyclist who was struck and killed by a
police car during a high-speed pursuit could sue under substantive due process
because no Fourth Amendment seizure took place); Evans v. Avery, 100 F.3d,
at 1036 (noting that "outside the context of a seizure, . . . a person injured as a
result of police misconduct may prosecute a substantive due process claim
under section 1983''); Pleasant v. Zamieski, 895 F.2d 272, 276, n. 2(CA6)
(noting that Graham "preserve[s] fourteenth amendment substantive due
process analysis for those instances in which a free citizen is denied his or her
constitutional right to life through means other than a law enforcement official's
arrest, investigatory stop or other seizure''), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 851, 111
S.Ct. 144, 112 L.Ed.2d 110 (1990).7
B

17

Since the time of our early explanations of due process, we have understood the
core of the concept to be protection against arbitrary action:

18

"The principal and true meaning of the phrase has never been more tersely or
accurately stated than by Mr. Justice Johnson, in Bank of Columbia v. Okely, 17
U.S. 235, 4 Wheat. 235-244, 4 L.Ed. 559 [(1819)]: "As to the words from
Magna Charta, incorporated into the Constitution of Maryland, after volumes
spoken and written with a view to their exposition, the good sense of mankind
has at last settled down to this: that they were intended to secure the individual
from the arbitrary exercise of the powers of government, unrestrained by the
established principles of private right and distributive justice.''' Hurtado v.
California, 110 U.S. 516, 527, 4 S.Ct., at 117 (1884).

19

We have emphasized time and again that " [t]he touchstone of due process is
protection of the individual against arbitrary action of government,'' Wolff v.
McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539, 558, 94 S.Ct. 2963, 2976, 41 L.Ed.2d 935 (1974),
whether the fault lies in a denial of fundamental procedural fairness, see, e.g.,
Fuentes v. Shevin, 407 U.S. 67, 82, 92 S.Ct. 1983, 1995, 32 L.Ed.2d 556 (1972)
(the procedural due process guarantee protects against "arbitrary takings''), or in
the exercise of power without any reasonable justification in the service of a
legitimate governmental objective, see, e.g., Daniels v. Williams, 474 U.S., at
331, 106 S.Ct., at 664 (the substantive due process guarantee protects against
government power arbitrarily and oppressively exercised). While due process
protection in the substantive sense limits what the government may do in both
its legislative, see, e.g., Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 85 S.Ct. 1678,
14 L.Ed.2d 510 (1965), and its executive capacities, see, e.g., Rochin v.
California, 342 U.S. 165, 72 S.Ct. 205, 96 L.Ed. 183 (1952), criteria to identify
what is fatally arbitrary differ depending on whether it is legislation or a
specific act of a governmental officer that is at issue.

20

Our cases dealing with abusive executive action have repeatedly emphasized
that only the most egregious official conduct can be said to be "arbitrary in the
constitutional sense,'' Collins v. Harker Heights, 503 U.S., at 129, 112 S.Ct., at
1071, thereby recognizing the point made in different circumstances by Chief
Justice Marshall, ""that it is a constitution we are expounding,''' Daniels v.
Williams, supra, at 332, 106 S.Ct., at 665 (quoting M'Culloch v. Maryland, 17
U.S. 316, 4 Wheat. 316, 407, 4 L.Ed. 579 (1819) (emphasis in original)). Thus,
in Collins v. Harker Heights, for example, we said that the Due Process Clause
was intended to prevent government officials ""from abusing [their] power, or
employing it as an instrument of oppression.''' 503 U.S., at 126, 112 S.Ct., at
1069 (quoting DeShaney v. Winnebago County Dept. of Social Servs., 489 U.S.,
at 196, 109 S.Ct., at 1003 (quoting Davidson v. Cannon, 474 U.S., at 348, 106
S.Ct., at 670-671)).

21

To this end, for half a century now we have spoken of the cognizable level of
executive abuse of power as that which shocks the conscience. We first put the
test this way in Rochin v. California, supra, at 172-173, 72 S.Ct., at 209-210,
where we found the forced pumping of a suspect's stomach enough to offend
due process as conduct "that shocks the conscience'' and violates the "decencies
of civilized conduct.'' In the intervening years we have repeatedly adhered to
Rochin 's benchmark. See, e.g., Breithaupt v. Abram, 352 U.S. 432, 435, 77
S.Ct. 408, 410, 1 L.Ed.2d 448 (1957) (reiterating that conduct that ""shocked
the conscience' and was so "brutal' and "offensive' that it did not comport with
traditional ideas of fair play and decency'' would violate substantive due
process); Whitley v. Albers, 475 U.S. 312, 327, 106 S.Ct. 1078, 1088, 89
L.Ed.2d 251 (1986) (same); United States v. Salerno, 481 U.S. 739, 746, 107
S.Ct. 2095, 2101, 95 L.Ed.2d 697 (1987) ("So-called "substantive due process'
prevents the government from engaging in conduct that "shocks the
conscience,' . . . or interferes with rights "implicit in the concept of ordered
liberty''') (quoting Rochin v. California, supra, at 172, 72 S.Ct., at 209-210, and
Palko v. Connecticut, 302 U.S. 319, 325-326, 58 S.Ct. 149, 151-152, 82 L.Ed.
288 (1937)). Most recently, in Collins v. Harker Heights, supra, at 128, 112
S.Ct., at 1070, we said again that the substantive component of the Due Process
Clause is violated by executive action only when it "can properly be
characterized as arbitrary, or conscience shocking, in a constitutional sense.''
While the measure of what is conscience-shocking is no calibrated yard stick, it
does, as Judge Friendly put it, "poin[t] the way.'' Johnson v. Glick, 481 F.2d
1028, 1033 (C.A.2), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 1033, 94 S.Ct. 462, 38 L.Ed.2d 324
(1973).8

22

It should not be surprising that the constitutional concept of conscienceshocking duplicates no traditional category of common-law fault, but rather
points clearly away from liability, or clearly toward it, only at the ends of the
tort law's spectrum of culpability. Thus, we have made it clear that the due
process guarantee does not entail a body of constitutional law imposing liability
whenever someone cloaked with state authority causes harm. In Paul v. Davis,
424 U.S. 693, 701, 96 S.Ct. 1155, 1160-1161, 47 L.Ed.2d 405 (1976), for
example, we explained that the Fourteenth Amendment is not a "font of tort law
to be superimposed upon whatever systems may already be administered by the
States,'' and in Daniels v. Williams, 474 U.S., at 332, 106 S.Ct., at 665, we
reaffirmed the point that " [o]ur Constitution deals with the large concerns of
the governors and the governed, but it does not purport to supplant traditional
tort law in laying down rules of conduct to regulate liability for injuries that
attend living together in society.'' We have accordingly rejected the lowest
common denominator of customary tort liability as any mark of sufficiently
shocking conduct, and have held that the Constitution does not guarantee due
care on the part of state officials; liability for negligently inflicted harm is
categorically beneath the threshold of constitutional due process. See Daniels v.
Williams, supra, at 328, 106 S.Ct., at 663; see also Davidson v. Cannon, 474
U.S. 344, 348, 106 S.Ct. 668, 670-671, 88 L.Ed.2d 677 (1986) (clarifying that
Daniels applies to substantive, as well as procedural, due process). It is, on the
contrary, behavior at the other end of the culpability spectrum that would most
probably support a substantive due process claim; conduct intended to injure in
some way unjustifiable by any government interest is the sort of official action
most likely to rise to the conscience-shocking level. See Daniels v. Williams,
474 U.S., at 331, 106 S.Ct., at 665 ("Historically, this guarantee of due process
has been applied to deliberate decisions of government officials to deprive a
person of life, liberty, or property'') (emphasis in original).

23

Whether the point of the conscience-shocking is reached when injuries are
produced with culpability falling within the middle range, following from
something more than negligence but "less than intentional conduct, such as
recklessness or "gross negligence,''' id., at 334, n. 3, 106 S.Ct., at 666, n. 3, is a
matter for closer calls.9 To be sure, we have expressly recognized the
possibility that some official acts in this range may be actionable under the
Fourteenth Amendment, ibid., and our cases have compelled recognition that
such conduct is egregious enough to state a substantive due process claim in at
least one instance. We held in City of Revere v. Massachusetts Gen. Hospital,
463 U.S. 239, 103 S.Ct. 2979, 77 L.Ed.2d 605 (1983), that "the due process
rights of a [pretrial detainee] are at least as great as the Eighth Amendment
protections available to a convicted prisoner.'' Id., at 244, 103 S.Ct., at 2983
(citing Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 535, n. 16, 545, 99 S.Ct. 1861, 1872, n.
16, 60 L.Ed.2d 447 (1979)). Since it may suffice for Eighth Amendment
liability that prison officials were deliberately indifferent to the medical needs
of their prisoners, see Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 104, 97 S.Ct. 285, 291,
50 L.Ed.2d 251 (1976), it follows that such deliberately indifferent conduct
must also be enough to satisfy the fault requirement for due process claims
based on the medical needs of someone jailed while awaiting trial, see, e.g.,
Barrie v. Grand County, Utah, 119 F.3d 862, 867 (C.A.10 1997); Weyant v.
Okst, 101 F.3d 845, 856 (C.A.2 1996).10

24

Rules of due process are not, however, subject to mechanical application in
unfamiliar territory. Deliberate indifference that shocks in one environment
may not be so patently egregious in another, and our concern with preserving
the constitutional proportions of substantive due process demands an exact
analysis of circumstances before any abuse of power is condemned as
conscience-shocking. What we have said of due process in the procedural sense
is just as true here:

25

"The phrase [due process of law] formulates a concept less rigid and more fluid
than those envisaged in other specific and particular provisions of the Bill of
Rights. Its application is less a matter of rule. Asserted denial is to be tested by
an appraisal of the totality of facts in a given case. That which may, in one
setting, constitute a denial of fundamental fairness, shocking to the universal
sense of justice, may, in other circumstances, and in the light of other
considerations, fall short of such denial.'' Betts v. Brady, 316 U.S. 455, 462, 62
S.Ct. 1252, 1256, 86 L.Ed. 1595 (1942).

26

Thus, attention to the markedly different circumstances of normal pretrial
custody and high-speed law enforcement chases shows why the deliberate
indifference that shocks in the one case is less egregious in the other (even
assuming that it makes sense to speak of indifference as deliberate in the case of
sudden pursuit). As the very term "deliberate indifference'' implies, the standard
is sensibly employed only when actual deliberation is practical, see Whitley v.
Albers, 475 U.S., at 320, 106 S.Ct., at 1084-1085,11 and in the custodial
situation of a prison, forethought about an inmate's welfare is not only feasible
but obligatory under a regime that incapacitates a prisoner to exercise ordinary
responsibility for his own welfare.

27

" [W]hen the State takes a person into its custody and holds him there against
his will, the Constitution imposes upon it a corresponding duty to assume some
responsibility for his safety and general well-being. The rationale for this
principle is simple enough: when the State by the affirmative exercise of its
power so restrains an individual's liberty that it renders him unable to care for
himself, and at the same time fails to provide for his basic human needs-e.g.,
food, clothing, shelter, medical care, and reasonable safety-it transgresses the
substantive limits on state action set by the . . . Due Process Clause.'' DeShaney
v. Winnebago County Dept. of Social Servs., 489 U.S., at 199-200, 109 S.Ct., at
1005 (citation and footnote omitted).

28

Nor does any substantial countervailing interest excuse the State from making
provision for the decent care and protection of those it locks up; "the State's
responsibility to attend to the medical needs of prisoners [or detainees] does not
ordinarily clash with other equally important governmental responsibilities.''
Whitley v. Albers, supra, at 320, 106 S.Ct., at 1084. 12

29

But just as the description of the custodial prison situation shows how
deliberate indifference can rise to a constitutionally shocking level, so too does
it suggest why indifference may well not be enough for liability in the different
circumstances of a case like this one. We have, indeed, found that deliberate
indifference does not suffice for constitutional liability (albeit under the Eighth
Amendment) even in prison circumstances when a prisoner's claim arises not
from normal custody but from response to a violent disturbance. Our analysis is
instructive here:

30

" [I]n making and carrying out decisions involving the use of force to restore
order in the face of a prison disturbance, prison officials undoubtedly must take
into account the very real threats the unrest presents to inmates and prison
officials alike, in addition to the possible harms to inmates against whom force
might be used . . . . In this setting, a deliberate indifference standard does not
adequately capture the importance of such competing obligations, or convey the
appropriate hesitancy to critique in hindsight decisions necessarily made in
haste, under pressure, and frequently without the luxury of a second chance.''
Whitley v. Albers, 475 U.S., at 320, 106 S.Ct., at 1084.

31

We accordingly held that a much higher standard of fault than deliberate
indifference has to be shown for officer liability in a prison riot. In those
circumstances, liability should turn on "whether force was applied in a good
faith effort to maintain or restore discipline or maliciously and sadistically for
the very purpose of causing harm.'' Id., at 320-321, 106 S.Ct., at 1085 (internal
quotation marks omitted). The analogy to sudden police chases (under the Due
Process Clause) would be hard to avoid.

32

Like prison officials facing a riot, the police on an occasion calling for fast
action have obligations that tend to tug against each other. Their duty is to
restore and maintain lawful order, while not exacerbating disorder more than
necessary to do their jobs. They are supposed to act decisively and to show
restraint at the same moment, and their decisions have to be made "in haste,
under pressure, and frequently without the luxury of a second chance.'' Id., at
320, 106 S.Ct., at 1084; cf. Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S., at 397, 109 S.Ct., at
1872 ("police officers are often forced to make split-second judgments-in
circumstances that are tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving''). A police officer
deciding whether to give chase must balance on one hand the need to stop a
suspect and show that flight from the law is no way to freedom, and, on the
other, the high-speed threat to everyone within stopping range, be they
suspects, their passengers, other drivers, or bystanders.

33

To recognize a substantive due process violation in these circumstances when
only mid-level fault has been shown would be to forget that liability for
deliberate indifference to inmate welfare rests upon the luxury enjoyed by
prison officials of having time to make unhurried judgments, upon the chance
for repeated reflection, largely uncomplicated by the pulls of competing
obligations. When such extended opportunities to do better are teamed with
protracted failure even to care, indifference is truly shocking. But when
unforeseen circumstances demand an officer's instant judgment, even
precipitate recklessness fails to inch close enough to harmful purpose to spark
the shock that implicates "the large concerns of the governors and the
governed.'' Daniels v. Williams, 474 U.S., at 332, 106 S.Ct., at 665. Just as a
purpose to cause harm is needed for Eighth Amendment liability in a riot case,
so it ought to be needed for Due Process liability in a pursuit case. Accordingly,
we hold that high-speed chases with no intent to harm suspects physically or to
worsen their legal plight do not give rise to liability under the Fourteenth
Amendment, redressible by an action under §1983.13

34

The fault claimed on Smith's part in this case accordingly fails to meet the
shocks-the-conscience test. In the count charging him with liability under
§1983, respondents' complaint alleges a variety of culpable states of mind:
"negligently responsible in some manner,'' (App. 11, Count one, ¶8), "reckless
and careless'' (id., at 12, ¶15), "recklessness, gross negligence and conscious
disregard for [Lewis's] safety'' (id., at 13, ¶18), and "oppression, fraud and
malice'' (Ibid.) The subsequent summary judgment proceedings revealed that
the height of the fault actually claimed was "conscious disregard,'' the malice
allegation having been made in aid of a request for punitive damages, but
unsupported either in allegations of specific conduct or in any affidavit of fact
offered on the motions for summary judgment. The Court of Appeals
understood the claim to be one of deliberate indifference to Lewis's survival,
which it treated as equivalent to one of reckless disregard for life. We agree
with this reading of respondents' allegations, but consequently part company
from the Court of Appeals, which found them sufficient to state a substantive
due process claim, and from the District Court, which made the same
assumption arguendo.14

35

Smith was faced with a course of lawless behavior for which the police were
not to blame. They had done nothing to cause Willard's high-speed driving in
the first place, nothing to excuse his flouting of the commonly understood law
enforcement authority to control traffic, and nothing (beyond a refusal to call
off the chase) to encourage him to race through traffic at breakneck speed
forcing other drivers out of their travel lanes. Willard's outrageous behavior was
practically instantaneous, and so was Smith's instinctive response. While
prudence would have repressed the reaction, the officer's instinct was to do his
job as a law enforcement officer, not to induce Willard's lawlessness, or to
terrorize, cause harm, or kill. Prudence, that is, was subject to countervailing
enforcement considerations, and while Smith exaggerated their demands, there
is no reason to believe that they were tainted by an improper or malicious
motive on his part.

36

Regardless whether Smith's behavior offended the reasonableness held up by
tort law or the balance struck in law enforcement's own codes of sound practice,
it does not shock the conscience, and petitioners are not called upon to answer
for it under §1983. The judgment below is accordingly reversed.

37

It is so ordered.

38

Chief Justice REHNQUIST, concurring.

39

I join the opinion of the Court in this case. The first question presented in the
County's petition for certiorari is:

40

"Whether, in a police pursuit case, the legal standard of conduct necessary to
establish a violation of substantive due process under the Fourteenth
Amendment is "shocks the conscience' . . . or "deliberate indifference' or
"reckless disregard.''' Pet. for Cert. i.

41

The County's petition assumed that the constitutional question was one of
substantive due process, and the parties briefed the question on that
assumption. The assumption was surely not without foundation in our case law,
as the Court makes clear. Ante, at __. The Court is correct in concluding that
"shocks the conscience'' is the right choice among the alternatives posed in the
question presented, and correct in concluding that this demanding standard has
not been met here.

42

Justice KENNEDY, with whom Justice O'CONNOR joins, concurring.

43

I join the opinion of the Court, and write this explanation of the objective
character of our substantive due process analysis.

44

The Court is correct, of course, in repeating that the prohibition against
deprivations of life, liberty, or property contained in the Due Process Clause of
the Fourteenth Amendment extends beyond the command of fair procedures. It
can no longer be controverted that due process has a substantive component as
well. See, e.g., Washington v. Glucksberg, 521 U.S. ----, 117 S.Ct. 2258, 138
L.Ed.2d 772 (1997); Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey, 505
U.S. 833, 112 S.Ct. 2791, 120 L.Ed.2d 674 (1992); Collins v. Harker Heights,
503 U.S. 115, 125-128, 112 S.Ct. 1061, 1068-1070, 117 L.Ed.2d 261 (1992);
Michael H. v. Gerald D., 491 U.S. 110, 109 S.Ct. 2333, 105 L.Ed.2d 91 (1989).
As a consequence, certain actions are prohibited no matter what procedures
attend them. In the case before us, there can be no question that an interest
protected by the text of the Constitution is implicated: The actions of the State
were part of a causal chain resulting in the undoubted loss of life. We have no
definitional problem, then, in determining whether there is an interest sufficient
to invoke due process. Cf. Ohio Adult Parole Authority v. Woodard, 523 U.S. ---, 118 S.Ct. 1244, 140 L.Ed.2d 387 (1998).

45

What we do confront is the question of the standard of conduct the Constitution
requires the State, in this case the local police, to follow to protect against the
unintentional taking of life in the circumstances of a police pursuit. Unlike the
separate question whether or not, given the fact of a constitutional violation, the
state entity is liable for damages, see Monell v. New York City Dept. of Social
Servs., 436 U.S. 658, 694-695, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 2037-2038, 56 L.Ed.2d 611
(1978); Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378, 109 S.Ct. 1197, 103 L.Ed.2d 412
(1989), which is a matter of statutory interpretation or elaboration, the question
here is the distinct, anterior issue whether or not a constitutional violation
occurred at all. See Collins v. Harker Heights, supra, at 120, 124, 112 S.Ct., at
1065-1066, 1068.

46

The Court decides this case by applying the "shocks the conscience'' test first
recognized in Rochin v. California, 342 U.S. 165, 172-173, 72 S.Ct. 205, 209210, 96 L.Ed. 183 (1952), and reiterated in subsequent decisions. The phrase
has the unfortunate connotation of a standard laden with subjective
assessments. In that respect, it must be viewed with considerable skepticism. As
our opinion in Collins v. Harker Heights illustrates, however, the test can be
used to mark the beginning point in asking whether or not the objective
character of certain conduct is consistent with our traditions, precedents, and
historical understanding of the Constitution and its meaning. 503 U.S., at 126128, 112 S.Ct., at 1069-1070. As Justice SCALIA is correct to point out, we so
interpreted the test in Glucksberg. Post, at __-__. In the instant case, the
authorities cited by Justice SCALIA are persuasive, indicating that we would
contradict our traditions were we to sustain the claims of the respondents.

47

That said, it must be added that history and tradition are the starting point, but
not in all cases the ending point of the substantive due process inquiry. There is
room as well for an objective assessment of the necessities of law enforcement,
in which the police must be given substantial latitude and discretion,
acknowledging, of course, the primacy of the interest in life which the State, by
the Fourteenth Amendment, is bound to respect. I agree with the Court's
assessment of the State's interests in this regard. Absent intent to injure, the
police, in circumstances such as these, may conduct a dangerous chase of a
suspect who disobeys a lawful command to stop when they determine it is
appropriate to do so. There is a real danger in announcing a rule, or suggesting
a principle, that in some cases a suspect is free to ignore a lawful police
command to stop. No matter how narrow its formulation, any suggestion that
suspects may ignore a lawful command to stop and then sue for damages
sustained in an ensuing chase might cause suspects to flee more often,
increasing accidents of the kind which occurred here.

48

Though I share Justice SCALIA's concerns about using the phrase "shocks the
conscience'' in a manner suggesting that it is a self-defining test, the reasons the
Court gives in support of its judgment go far toward establishing that objective
considerations, including history and precedent, are the controlling principle,
regardless of whether the State's action is legislative or executive in character.
To decide this case, we need not attempt a comprehensive definition of the
level of causal participation which renders a State or its officers liable for
violating the substantive commands of the Fourteenth Amendment. It suffices
to conclude that neither our legal traditions nor the present needs of law
enforcement justify finding a due process violation when unintended injuries
occur after the police pursue a suspect who disobeys their lawful order to stop.

49

Justice BREYER, concurring.

50

I join the Court's judgment and opinion. I write separately only to point out my
agreement with Justice STEVENS, post, at __, that Siegert v. Gilley, 500 U.S.
226, 111 S.Ct. 1789, 114 L.Ed.2d 277 (1991), should not be read to deny lower
courts the flexibility, in appropriate cases, to decide §1983 claims on the basis
of qualified immunity, and thereby avoid wrestling with constitutional issues
that are either difficult or poorly presented. See Siegert, supra, at 235, 111
S.Ct., at 1794-1795 (KENNEDY, J., concurring) (Lower court "adopted the
altogether normal procedure of deciding the case before it on the ground that
appeared to offer the most direct and appropriate resolution, and one argued by
the parties'').

51

Justice STEVENS, concurring in the judgment.

52

When defendants in a §1983 action argue in the alternative (a) that they did not
violate the Constitution, and (b) that in any event they are entitled to qualified
immunity because the constitutional right was not clearly established, the
opinion in Siegert v. Gilley, 500 U.S. 226, 111 S.Ct. 1789, 114 L.Ed.2d 277
(1991), tells us that we should address the constitutional question at the outset.
That is sound advice when the answer to the constitutional question is clear.
When, however, the question is both difficult and unresolved, I believe it wiser
to adhere to the policy of avoiding the unnecessary adjudication of
constitutional questions. Because I consider this such a case, I would reinstate
the judgment of the District Court on the ground that the relevant law was not
clearly defined in 1990.

53

The Court expresses concern that deciding the immunity issue without
resolving the underlying constitutional question would perpetuate a state of
uncertainty in the law. Ante, at __ n. 5. Yet the Court acknowledges, as it must,
that a qualified immunity defense is unavailable in an action against the
municipality itself. Id. Sound reasons exist for encouraging the development of
new constitutional doctrines in adversarial suits against municipalities, which
have a substantial stake in the outcome and a risk of exposure to damages
liability even when individual officers are plainly protected by qualified
immunity.

54

In sum, I would hold that Officer Smith is entitled to qualified immunity.
Accordingly, I concur in the Court's judgment, but I do not join its opinion.

55

Justice SCALIA, with whom Justice THOMAS joins, concurring in the
judgment.

56

Today's opinion gives the lie to those cynics who claim that changes in this
Court's jurisprudence are attributable to changes in the Court's membership. It
proves that the changes are attributable to nothing but the passage of time (not
much time, at that), plus application of the ancient maxim, "That was then, this
is now.''

57

Just last Term, in Washington v. Glucksberg, 521 U.S. ----, _________, 117
S.Ct. 2258, 2267-2269, 138 L.Ed.2d 772 (1997), the Court specifically rejected
the method of substantive-due-process analysis employed by Justice SOUTER
in his concurrence in that case, which is the very same method employed by
Justice SOUTER in his opinion for the Court today. To quote the opinion in
Glucksberg:

58

"Our established method of substantive-due-process analysis has two primary
features: First, we have regularly observed that the Due Process Clause
specially protects those fundamental rights and liberties which are, objectively,
"deeply rooted in this Nation's history and tradition,' . . . and "implicit in the
concept of ordered liberty' . . . . Second, we have required in substantive-dueprocess cases a "careful description' of the asserted fundamental liberty interest
. . . . Our Nation's history, legal traditions, and practices thus provide the crucial
"guideposts for responsible decisionmaking,' . . . that direct and restrain our
exposition of the Due Process Clause . . . .

59

"Justice SOUTER . . . would largely abandon this restrained methodology, and
instead ask "whether [Washington's] statute sets up one of those "arbitrary
impositions'' or "purposeless restraints'' at odds with the Due Process Clause . . .
. In our view, however, the development of this Court's substantive-due-process
jurisprudence . . . has been a process whereby the outlines of the "liberty'
specially protected by the Fourteenth Amendment . . . have at least been
carefully refined by concrete examples involving fundamental rights found to
be deeply rooted in our legal tradition. This approach tends to rein in the
subjective elements that are necessarily present in due-process judicial review.''
Id., at ----, 117 S.Ct., at 2268.

60

Today, so to speak, the stone that the builders had rejected has become the
foundation-stone of our substantive-due-process jurisprudence. The atavistic
methodology that Justice SOUTER announces for the Court is the very same
methodology that the Court called atavistic when it was proffered by Justice
SOUTER in Glucksberg. In fact, if anything, today's opinion is even more of a
throw-back to highly subjective substantive-due-process methodologies than
the concurrence in Glucksberg was. Whereas the latter said merely that
substantive due process prevents "arbitrary impositions'' and "purposeless
restraints'' (without any objective criterion as to what is arbitrary or
purposeless), today's opinion resuscitates the ne plus ultra, the Napoleon
Brandy, the Mahatma Ghandi, the Celophane1 of subjectivity, th' ol' "shocksthe-conscience'' test. According to today's opinion, this is the measure of
arbitrariness when what is at issue is executive rather than legislative action.
Ante, at __. 2 Glucksberg, of course, rejected "shocks-the-conscience,'' just as it
rejected the less subjective "arbitrary action'' test. A 1992 executive-action
case, Collins v. Harker Heights, 503 U.S. 115, 112 S.Ct. 1061, 117 L.Ed.2d
261 (1992), which had paid lip-service to "shocks-the-conscience,'' see id., at
128, 112 S.Ct., at 1070, was cited in Glucksberg for the proposition that " [o]ur
Nation's history, legal traditions, and practices . . . provide the crucial
"guideposts for responsible decisionmaking.''' Glucksberg, supra, 521 U.S., at ---, 117 S.Ct., at 2268, quoting Collins, supra, at 125, 112 S.Ct., at 1068. In
fact, even before Glucksberg we had characterized the last "shocks-theconscience'' claim to come before us as "nothing more than [a] bald
assertio[n],'' and had rejected it on the objective ground that the petitioner
"failed to proffer any historical, textual, or controlling precedential support for
[his alleged due process right], and we decline to fashion a new due process
right out of thin air.'' Carlisle v. United States, 517 U.S. 416, 429, 116 S.Ct.
1460, 1468, 134 L.Ed.2d 613 (1996).

61

Adhering to our decision in Glucksberg, rather than ask whether the police
conduct here at issue shocks my unelected conscience, I would ask whether our
Nation has traditionally protected the right respondents assert. The first step of
our analysis, of course, must be a "careful description'' of the right asserted,
Glucksberg, 521 U.S., at ---------, 117 S.Ct., at 2267-2268. Here the complaint
alleges that the police officer deprived Lewis "of his Fourteenth Amendment
right to life, liberty and property without due process of law when he operated
his vehicle with recklessness, gross negligence and conscious disregard for his
safety.'' App. 13. I agree with the Court's conclusion that this asserts a
substantive right to be free from "deliberate or reckless indifference to life in a
high-speed automobile chase aimed at apprehending a suspected offender.''
Ante, at __; see also ante, at __.

62

Respondents provide no textual or historical support for this alleged due
process right, and, as in Carlisle, I would "decline to fashion a new due process
right out of thin air.'' 517 U.S., at 429, 116 S.Ct., at 1468. Nor have respondents
identified any precedential support. Indeed, precedent is to the contrary:
"Historically, th[e] guarantee of due process has been applied to deliberate
decisions of government officials to deprive a person of life, liberty, or
property.'' Daniels v. Williams, 474 U.S. 327, 331, 106 S.Ct. 662, 664-665, 88
L.Ed.2d 662 (1986) (citations omitted); Collins, supra, at 127, n. 10, 112 S.Ct.,
at 1069, n. 10 (same). Though it is true, as the Court explains, that "deliberate
indifference'' to the medical needs of pretrial detainees, City of Revere v.
Massachusetts Gen. Hospital, 463 U.S. 239, 244-245, 103 S.Ct. 2979, 29832984, 77 L.Ed.2d 605 (1983), or of involuntarily committed mental patients,
Youngberg v. Romeo, 457 U.S. 307, 314-325, 102 S.Ct. 2452, 2457-2463, 73
L.Ed.2d 28 (1982), may violate substantive due process, it is not the deliberate
indifference alone which is the "deprivation.'' Rather, it is that combined with
"the State's affirmative act of restraining the individual's freedom to act on his
own behalf-through incarceration, institutionalization, or other similar restraint
of personal liberty,'' DeShaney v. Winnebago County Dept. of Social Servs., 489
U.S. 189, 200, 109 S.Ct. 998, 1006, 103 L.Ed.2d 249 (1989). " [W]hen the
State by the affirmative exercise of its power so restrains an individual's liberty
that it renders him unable to care for himself, and at the same time fails to
provide for his basic human needs . . . it transgresses the substantive limits on
state action set by the . . . Due Process Clause.'' Ibid. (emphasis added). We
have expressly left open whether, in a context in which the individual has not
been deprived of the ability to care for himself in the relevant respect,
"something less than intentional conduct, such as recklessness or "gross
negligence,''' can ever constitute a "deprivation'' under the Due Process Clause.
Daniels, supra, at 334, n. 3, 106 S.Ct., at 666, n. 3. Needless to say, if it is an
open question whether recklessness can ever trigger due process protections,
there is no precedential support for a substantive-due-process right to be free
from reckless police conduct during a car chase.

63

To hold, as respondents urge, that all government conduct deliberately
indifferent to life, liberty, or property, violates the Due Process Clause would
make ""the Fourteenth Amendment a font of tort law to be superimposed upon
whatever systems may already be administered by the States.''' Daniels, supra,
at 332, 106 S.Ct., at 665, quoting Paul v. Davis, 424 U.S. 693, 701, 96 S.Ct.
1155, 1160, 47 L.Ed.2d 405 (1976) (other citation omitted). Here, for instance,
it is not fair to say that it was the police officer alone who "deprived'' Lewis of
his life. Though the police car did run Lewis over, it was the driver of the
motorcycle, Willard, who dumped Lewis in the car's path by recklessly making
a sharp left turn at high speed. (Willard had the option of rolling to a gentle stop
and showing the officer his license and registration.) Surely Willard "deprived''
Lewis of his life in every sense that the police officer did. And if Lewis
encouraged Willard to make the reckless turn, Lewis himself would be
responsible, at least in part, for his own death. Was there contributory fault on
the part of Willard or Lewis? Did the police officer have the "last clear chance''
to avoid the accident? Did Willard and Lewis, by fleeing from the police,
"assume the risk'' of the accident? These are interesting questions of tort law,
not of constitutional governance. "Our Constitution deals with the large
concerns of the governors and the governed, but it does not purport to supplant
traditional tort law in laying down rules of conduct to regulate liability for
injuries that attend living together in society.'' Daniels, supra, at 332, 106 S.Ct.,
at 665. As we have said many times, "the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth
Amendment . . . does not transform every tort committed by a state actor into a
constitutional violation.'' DeShaney, supra, at 202, 109 S.Ct., at 1006 (citations
omitted).

64

If the people of the State of California would prefer a system that renders police
officers liable for reckless driving during high-speed pursuits, " [t]hey may
create such a system . . . by changing the tort law of the State in accordance
with the regular lawmaking process.'' 489 U.S., at 203, 109 S.Ct., at 1007. For
now, they prefer not to hold public employees "liable for civil damages on
account of personal injury to or death of any person or damage to property
resulting from the operation, in the line of duty, of an authorized emergency
vehicle . . . when in the immediate pursuit of an actual or suspected violator of
the law.'' Cal. Veh.Code Ann. §17004 (West 1971). It is the prerogative of a
self-governing people to make that legislative choice. "Political society,'' as the
Seventh Circuit has observed, "must consider not only the risks to passengers,
pedestrians, and other drivers that high-speed chases engender, but also the fact
that if police are forbidden to pursue, then many more suspects will flee-and
successful flights not only reduce the number of crimes solved but also create
their own risks for passengers and bystanders.'' Mays v. City of East St. Louis,
123 F.3d 999, 1003 (C.A.7 1997). In allocating such risks, the people of
California and their elected representatives may vote their consciences. But for
judges to overrule that democratically adopted policy judgment on the ground
that it shocks their consciences is not judicial review but judicial governance.

65

I would reverse the judgment of the Ninth Circuit, not on the ground that
petitioners have failed to shock my still, soft voice within, but on the ground
that respondents offer no textual or historical support for their alleged due
process right. Accordingly, I concur in the judgment of the Court.

*

1

2

3

The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been
prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader.
See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U.S. 321, 337, 26
S.Ct. 282, 287, 50 L.Ed. 499.
Respondents also brought claims under state law. The District Court found
that Smith was immune from state tort liability by operation of California
Vehicle Code §17004, which provides that " [a] public employee is not
liable for civil damages on account of personal injury to or death of any
person or damage to property resulting from the operation, in the line of
duty, of an authorized emergency vehicle . . . when in the immediate
pursuit of an actual or suspected violator of the law.'' Cal. Veh.Code Ann.
§17004 (West 1971). The court declined to rule on the potential liability of
the County under state law, instead dismissing the tort claims against the
County without prejudice to refiling in state court.
The District Court also granted summary judgment in favor of the County
and the Sheriff's Department on the §1983 claim, concluding that
municipal liability would not lie under Monell v. New York City Dept. of
Social Servs., 436 U.S. 658, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978), after
finding no genuine factual dispute as to whether the County adequately
trains its officers in the conduct of vehicular pursuits or whether the
pursuit policy of the Sheriff's Department evinces deliberate indifference
to the constitutional rights of the public. The Ninth Circuit affirmed the
District Court on these points, 98 F.3d 434, 446-447 (1996) and the issue
of municipal liability is not before us.
In Jones v. Sherrill, 827 F.2d 1102, 1106 (1987), the Sixth Circuit adopted
a "gross negligence'' standard for imposing liability for harm caused by
police pursuit. Subsequently, in Foy v. Berea, 58 F.3d 227, 230 (1995), the
Sixth Circuit, without specifically mentioning Jones, disavowed the notion
that "gross negligence is sufficient to support a substantive due process
claim.'' Although Foy involved police inaction, rather than police pursuit,
it seems likely that the Sixth Circuit would now apply the "deliberate
indifference'' standard utilized in that case, see 58 F.3d, at 232-233, rather
than the "gross negligence'' standard adopted in Jones, in a police pursuit
situation.

4

Respondents do not argue that they were denied due process of law by
virtue of the fact that California's post-deprivation procedures and rules of
immunity have effectively denied them an adequate opportunity to seek
compensation for the state-occasioned deprivation of their son's life. We
express no opinion here on the merits of such a claim, cf. Albright v.
Oliver, 510 U.S. 266, 281-286, 114 S.Ct. 807, 816-820, 127 L.Ed.2d 114
(1994) (KENNEDY, J., concurring in judgment); Parratt v. Taylor, 451
U.S. 527, 101 S.Ct. 1908, 68 L.Ed.2d 420 (1981), or on the adequacy of
California's post-deprivation compensation scheme.

5

As in any action under §1983, the first step is to identify the exact
contours of the underlying right said to have been violated. See Graham v.
Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 394, 109 S.Ct. 1865, 1870-1871, 104 L.Ed.2d 443
(1989). The District Court granted summary judgment to Smith on the
basis of qualified immunity, assuming without deciding that a substantive
due process violation took place but holding that the law was not clearly
established in 1990 so as to justify imposition of §1983 liability. We do not
analyze this case in a similar fashion because, as we have held, the better
approach to resolving cases in which the defense of qualified immunity is
raised is to determine first whether the plaintiff has alleged a deprivation
of a constitutional right at all. Normally, it is only then that a court should
ask whether the right allegedly implicated was clearly established at the
time of the events in question. See Siegert v. Gilley, 500 U.S. 226, 232,
111 S.Ct. 1789, 1793, 114 L.Ed.2d 277 (1991) ("A necessary concomitant
to the determination of whether the constitutional right asserted by a
plaintiff is "clearly established' at the time the defendant acted is the
determination of whether the plaintiff has asserted a violation of a
constitutional right at all,'' and courts should not "assum[e], without
deciding, this preliminary issue'').
Justice STEVENS suggests that the rule of Siegert should not apply
where, as here, the constitutional question presented "is both difficult and
unresolved.'' Post, at __. But the generally sound rule of avoiding
determination of constitutional issues does not readily fit the situation
presented here; when liability is claimed on the basis of a constitutional
violation, even a finding of qualified immunity requires some
determination about the state of constitutional law at the time the officer
acted. What is more significant is that if the policy of avoidance were
always followed in favor of ruling on qualified immunity whenever there
was no clearly settled constitutional rule of primary conduct, standards of
official conduct would tend to remain uncertain, to the detriment both of
officials and individuals. An immunity determination, with nothing more,
provides no clear standard, constitutional or non-constitutional. In practical
terms, escape from uncertainty would require the issue to arise in a suit to
enjoin future conduct, in an action against a municipality, or in litigating a
suppression motion in a criminal proceeding; in none of these instances
would qualified immunity be available to block a determination of law.
See Shapiro, Public Officials' Qualified Immunity in Section 1983 Actions
Under Harlow v. Fitzgerald and its Progeny, 22 U. Mich. J.L. Ref. 249,
265, n. 109 (1989). But these avenues would not necessarily be open, and
therefore the better approach is to determine the right before determining
whether it was previously established with clarity.

6

7

See Brief for National Association of Counties et al. as Amici Curiae 8-13;
Brief for Grand Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police as Amicus Curiae
4-9; Brief for City and County of Denver, Colorado as Amici Curiae 2-7;
Brief for County of Riverside et al. as Amici Curiae 6-18; Brief for Gabriel
Torres et al. as Amici Curiae 3-11.
Several amici suggest that, for the purposes of Graham, the Fourth
Amendment should cover not only seizures, but also failed attempts to
make a seizure. See, e.g., Brief for National Association of Counties et al.
as Amici Curiae 10-11. This argument is foreclosed by California v.
Hodari D., in which we explained that "neither usage nor common-law
tradition makes an attempted seizure a seizure. The common law may have
made an attempted seizure unlawful in certain circumstances; but it made
many things unlawful, very few of which were elevated to constitutional
proscriptions.'' 499 U.S. 621, 626, n. 2, 111 S.Ct. 1547, 1550, n. 2, 113
L.Ed.2d 690, (1991). Attempted seizures of a person are beyond the scope
of the Fourth Amendment. See id., at 646, 111 S.Ct., at 1561 (STEVENS,
J., dissenting) (disagreeing with the Court's position that "an attempt to
make [a] . . . seizure is beyond the coverage of the Fourth Amendment'').

8

As Justice SCALIA has explained before, he fails to see "the usefulness of
"conscience shocking' as a legal test,'' Herrera v. Collins, 506 U.S. 390,
428, 113 S.Ct. 853, 875, 122 L.Ed.2d 203 (1993), and his independent
analysis of this case is therefore understandable. He is, however, simply
mistaken in seeing our insistence on the shocks-the-conscience standard as
an atavistic return to a scheme of due process analysis rejected by the
Court in Washington v. Glucksberg, 521 U.S. ----, 117 S.Ct. 2258, 138
L.Ed.2d 772 (1997).
Glucksberg presented a disagreement about the significance of historical
examples of protected liberty in determining whether a given statute could
be judged to contravene the Fourteenth Amendment. The differences of
opinion turned on the issues of how much history indicating recognition of
the asserted right, viewed at what level of specificity, is necessary to
support the finding of a substantive due process right entitled to prevail
over state legislation.
As we explain in the text, a case challenging executive action on
substantive due process grounds, like this one, presents an issue antecedent
to any question about the need for historical examples of enforcing a
liberty interest of the sort claimed. For executive action challenges raise a
particular need to preserve the constitutional proportions of constitutional
claims, lest the Constitution be demoted to what we have called a font of
tort law. Thus, in a due process challenge to executive action, the threshold
question is whether the behavior of the governmental officer is so
egregious, so outrageous, that it may fairly be said to shock the
contemporary conscience. That judgment may be informed by a history of
liberty protection, but it necessarily reflects an understanding of traditional
executive behavior, of contemporary practice, and of the standards of
blame generally applied to them. Only if the necessary condition of
egregious behavior were satisfied would there be a possibility of
recognizing a substantive due process right to be free of such executive
action, and only then might there be a debate about the sufficiency of
historical examples of enforcement of the right claimed, or its recognition
in other ways. In none of our prior cases have we considered the necessity
for such examples, and no such question is raised in this case.
In sum, the difference of opinion in Glucksberg was about the need for
historical examples of recognition of the claimed liberty protection at
some appropriate level of specificity. In an executive action case, no such
issue can arise if the conduct does not reach the degree of the egregious.

9

10

11

12

13

In Rochin v. California, 342 U.S. 165, 72 S.Ct. 205, 96 L.Ed. 183 (1952),
the case in which we formulated and first applied the shocks-theconscience test, it was not the ultimate purpose of the government actors to
harm the plaintiff, but they apparently acted with full appreciation of what
the Court described as the brutality of their acts. Rochin, of course, was
decided long before Graham v. Connor (and Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643,
81 S.Ct. 1684, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081 (1961)), and today would be treated under
the Fourth Amendment, albeit with the same result.
We have also employed deliberate indifference as a standard of culpability
sufficient to identify a dereliction as reflective of municipal policy and to
sustain a claim of municipal liability for failure to train an employee who
causes harm by unconstitutional conduct for which he would be
individually liable. See Canton v. Harris, 489 U.S. 378, 388-389, 109
S.Ct. 1197, 1204-1205, 103 L.Ed.2d 412 (1989).
By "actual deliberation,'' we do not mean "deliberation'' in the narrow,
technical sense in which it has sometimes been used in traditional
homicide law. See, e.g., Caldwell v. State, 203 Ala. 412, 84 So. 272, 276
(1919) (noting that ""deliberation here does not mean that the man slayer
must ponder over the killing for a long time'''; rather, "it may exist and
may be entertained while the man slayer is pressing the trigger of the
pistol that fired the fatal shot[,] even if it be only for a moment or instant
of time'').
Youngberg v. Romeo, 457 U.S. 307, 102 S.Ct. 2452, 73 L.Ed.2d 28 (1982),
can be categorized on much the same terms. There, we held that a severely
retarded person could state a claim under §1983 for a violation of
substantive due process if the personnel at the mental institution where he
was confined failed to exercise professional judgment when denying him
training and habilitation. Id., at 319-325, 102 S.Ct., at 2459-2463. The
combination of a patient's involuntary commitment and his total
dependence on his custodians obliges the government to take thought and
make reasonable provision for the patient's welfare.
Cf. Checki v. Webb, 785 F.2d 534, 538 (C.A.5 1986) ("Where a citizen
suffers physical injury due to a police officer's negligent use of his vehicle,
no section 1983 claim is stated. It is a different story when a citizen
suffers or is seriously threatened with physical injury due to a police
officer's intentional misuse of his vehicle'') (citation omitted).

14

1

2

To say that due process is not offended by the police conduct described
here is not, of course, to imply anything about its appropriate treatment
under state law. See Collins v. Harker Heights, 503 U.S. 115, 129, 112
S.Ct. 1061, 1070, 117 L.Ed.2d 261 (1992) (decisions about civil liability
standards that "involve a host of policy choices . . . must be made by
locally elected representatives [or by courts enforcing the common law of
torts], rather than by federal judges interpreting the basic charter of
Government for the entire country''). Cf. Thomas v. City of Richmond, 9
Cal.4th 1154, 40 Cal.Rptr.2d 442, 892 P.2d 1185 (1995) (en banc)
(discussing municipal liability under California law for injuries caused by
police pursuits).
For those unfamiliar with classical music, I note that the exemplars of
excellence in the text are borrowed from Cole Porter's "You're the Top,''
copyright 1934.
The proposition that "shocks-the-conscience'' is a test applicable only to
executive action is original with today's opinion. That has never been
suggested in any of our cases, and in fact "shocks-the-conscience'' was
recited in at least one opinion involving legislative action. See United
States v. Salerno, 481 U.S. 739, 746, 107 S.Ct. 2095, 2101, 95 L.Ed.2d
697 (1987) (in considering whether the Bail Reform Act of 1984 violated
the Due Process Clause, we said that " [s]o-called "substantive due
process' prevents the government from engaging in conduct that "shocks
the conscience' ''). I am of course happy to accept whatever limitations the
Court today is willing to impose upon the "shocks-the-conscience'' test,
though it is a puzzlement why substantive due process protects some
liberties against executive officers but not against legislatures.

Sponsor Documents

Or use your account on DocShare.tips

Hide

Forgot your password?

Or register your new account on DocShare.tips

Hide

Lost your password? Please enter your email address. You will receive a link to create a new password.

Back to log-in

Close