Opinion ID: 1213706
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Federal Malicious Prosecution Claim

Text: In addition to his state-law claim, Johnson asserts a federal malicious prosecution claim grounded in the Fourth Amendment. More specifically, Johnson invites us to revisit Newsome v. McCabe, 256 F.3d 747 (7th Cir.2001), which he characterizes as foreclosing his Fourth Amendment malicious prosecution claim. We can think of several reasons to decline Johnson's invitation. First, we agree with the district court that Johnson forfeited his Fourth Amendment malicious prosecution claim by failing to develop it in his summary judgment brief. Johnson asks that we overlook forfeiture because his theory of malicious prosecution was barred by Newsome, so attempting to argue that theory to the district court would have been futile. See Ienco v. City of Chicago, 286 F.3d 994, 999 (7th Cir.2002) (declining to penalize a plaintiff for failing to convincingly argue... a cause of action at summary judgment that was foreclosed by prior circuit precedent). What Johnson fails to acknowledge is that this exception to forfeiture applies only when an intervening change in the law removes the precedential bar. Id. Unlike the situation described in Ienco, no intervening decision by this court has undermined Newsome; it is Johnson who, for the first time on appeal, attacks Newsome and proposes a novel reading of the Fourth Amendment. As Saville points out, the novelty of Johnson's Fourth Amendment claim makes the case for forfeiture even more compelling. See Kunz v. DeFelice, 538 F.3d 667, 681 (7th Cir.2008) (Especially on a question that would require the application of a novel legal theory to a new set of facts ... the district court must have the first opportunity to rule with the benefit of full briefing and consideration.). Johnson suggests that the Supreme Court's decision in Wallace v. Kato, 549 U.S. 384, 127 S.Ct. 1091, 166 L.Ed.2d 973 (2007), is an intervening change in the law that undermines Newsome 's rationale. All that the Court said in Wallace was that it has never explored the contours of a Fourth Amendment malicious-prosecution suit under § 1983 ... and ... do[es] not do so here. Id. at 390 n. 2, 127 S.Ct. 1091. This footnote statement on what the Court hasn't decided does not require us to reexamine circuit precedent. Moreover, Wallace was not intervening with respect to Johnson's lawsuit. Wallace came down on February 21, 2007; Johnson filed his complaint in the district court on April 20, 2007; Johnson did not file his brief in opposition to summary judgment until September 9, 2008. If Johnson thought that Wallace gave a new, federal flavor to his malicious prosecution claim, it required no clairvoyance to include that argument in his summary judgment brief to the district court. Second, Johnson over-reads Newsome as foreclosing his federal claim. We held in that case that the due process clause does not support a constitutional tort of malicious prosecution if state law provides a parallel remedy. Newsome, 256 F.3d at 751. Newsome left open the possibility of a Fourth Amendment claim against officers who misrepresent evidence to prosecutors, provided that the statute of limitations for such a claim has not expired. See id. at 749-50. Circuit precedent did not necessarily prevent Johnson from bringing a Fourth Amendment claim based on Saville's allegedly false report to the State's Attorney and grand jury testimony. See McCullah v. Gadert, 344 F.3d 655, 659 (7th Cir.2003) (recognizing a Fourth Amendment wrongful arrest claim against an officer who allegedly gave false information in an incident report and at a preliminary hearing). Finally, even if we reached the merits of Johnson's Fourth Amendment malicious prosecution claim, we do not see how Johnson would prevail. Although Johnson's brief does not delineate the elements of the federal malicious prosecution claim that he asks us to recognize, it is likely that one such element would be the absence of probable cause to initiate criminal proceedings. See Fox v. DeSoto, 489 F.3d 227, 237 (6th Cir.2007) (Although the contours of a Fourth Amendment malicious prosecution claim remain uncertain ... such a claim fails when there was probable cause to prosecute....). Given our holding that Johnson's state-law malicious prosecution claim fails because Saville acted with probable cause, his federal claim would fail for the same reason.