Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/21pdf/20-659_3ea4.pdf
Page Number: 18

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

3 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

of the elements of common-law malicious prosecution, and 
a  plaintiff  suing  for  common-law  malicious  prosecution
need not prove any of the elements required to establish an
unreasonable seizure.  

Start  with  the  elements  of  an  unreasonable-seizure 
claim.  Such a claim does not require proof that there was a
“prosecution”—i.e.,  a  criminal  proceeding  that  is  initiated
by the filing of charges in the form of a criminal complaint, 
information, or indictment—while a malicious-prosecution
claim obviously requires a prosecution.  See, e.g., 1 F. Hilli-
ard, The Law of Torts or Private  Wrongs §2, pp. 413–414
(1866) (Hilliard) (“The general principle is laid down, that 
an  action  lies  for  maliciously  causing  one  to  be  indicted, 
whereby  he  is  damnified,  either  in  person,  reputation,  or 
property”  (emphasis  added));  Cooley  180  (“[I]t  is  a  duty 
which every man owes to every other not to institute pro-
ceedings maliciously, which he has no good reason to believe 
are  justified  by  the  facts  and  the  law”  (emphasis  added));
M. Newell, Law of Malicious Prosecution, False Imprison-
ment, and Abuse of Process §1, p. 3 (1892) (Newell) (same);
see also W. Prosser, Law of Torts 860 (1941) (“The interest 
in freedom from unjustifiable litigation is protected by an
action for malicious prosecution” (boldface deleted and em-
phasis added)).  A person who is arrested without probable 
cause may have a viable unreasonable-seizure claim even if 
he or she is released before any charges are filed. 

An  unreasonable-seizure  claim  also  does  not  require
“malice.”  The Court has “almost uniformly rejected invita-
tions  to  probe  subjective  intent”  in  Fourth  Amendment 
cases.  Ashcroft v. al-Kidd, 563 U. S. 731, 737 (2011).  If a 
law enforcement officer makes an arrest without probable
cause, the arrest is unreasonable and therefore unconstitu-
tional even if the officer harbors no ill will for the arrestee. 
Likewise, if an officer makes an arrest with probable cause,
there is no Fourth Amendment violation regardless of the 
“actual  motivations  of  the  individual  officers  involved.”