Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/20-659_3ea4.pdf
Page Number: 16

Cite as:  596 U. S. ____ (2022) 

1 

ALITO, J., concurring
ALITO, J., dissenting 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

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No. 20–659 
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LARRY THOMPSON, PETITIONER v. 
PAGIEL CLARK, ET AL. 

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF 
APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT 

[April 4, 2022]

 JUSTICE  ALITO,  with  whom  JUSTICE  THOMAS  and 

JUSTICE GORSUCH join, dissenting. 

Homer described the mythical chimera as a “grim mon-
ster”  made  of  “all  lion  in  front,  all  snake  behind,  all  goat 
between.” The Iliad p. 201 (R. Fagles trans. 1990).  Today, 
the  Court  creates  a  chimera  of  a  constitutional  tort  by
stitching together elements taken from two very different
claims:  a  Fourth  Amendment  unreasonable  seizure  claim 
and a common-law malicious-prosecution claim.

The Court justifies this creation on the ground that mali-
cious prosecution is the common-law tort that is most anal-
ogous  to  an  unreasonable  seizure  claim.    And  because  a 
common-law  malicious-prosecution  claim  demanded  proof
of a favorable termination, the Court holds that its new cre-
ation includes that element.  But this Court has never held 
that  the  Fourth  Amendment  houses  a  malicious-prosecu-
tion claim, and the Court defends its analogy with just two
sentences of independent analysis and a reference to a body
of lower court cases. 

I cannot agree with that approach.  The Court’s independ-
ent  analysis  of  this  important  question  is  far  too  cursory,
and its reliance on lower court cases is particularly ill-ad-
vised  here  because  that  body  of  case  law  appears  to  have 
been heavily influenced by a mistaken reading of the plu-
rality opinion in Albright v. Oliver, 510 U. S. 266 (1994).