Adam Liptak at the New York Times has this great piece about a petition for certiorari asking the Court to grant a case involving some Seattle police officers, who tasered a pregnant woman because she refused to sign a speeding ticket. The police officers won on qualified immunity grounds in a divided en banc decision from the Ninth Circuit.
The reason the police officers are challenging a decision they essentially won is because they don’t want precedent out there saying that taser use can violate the Fourth Amendment. The reason such a holding is important, and unacceptable to the officers, is because now someone else can win on that constitutional claim as it has now been clearly established.
It is interesting that the City of Seattle agrees with the view that some taser uses by its own police can violate the Constitution. Apparently, the police force disagrees with the City on what is an appropriate use of force.
That does not seem likely a healthy relationship!