Opinion ID: 773804
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Shock the Conscience Test

Text: 21 Applying the shock the conscience test, the more difficult standard for the plaintiff to meet, it is clear that the district court's decision granting summary judgment to Officer Bragg must be affirmed. As stated earlier, the Supreme Court has held that different conscience-shocking standards should be applied depending on the circumstances in which the governmental action occurred. Lewis, 523 U.S. at 850-51. Unlike those instances where the government actor has the time to deliberate various alternatives before acting, this case is precisely one of those rapidly evolving, fluid, and dangerous predicament[s] which precludes the luxury of calm and reflective pre-response deliberation[.] Claybrook, 199 F.3d at 359. Officer Bragg, when grabbed from behind in a loud and unruly crowd of people, did not have time to deliberate the best possible course of action. Just the opposite is the case. In these instances, the Court has stated that the government actor's conduct shocks the conscience only if the force was applied maliciously and sadistically for the very purpose of causing harm. Lewis, 523 U.S. at 853 (quotation omitted). Given the facts of this case, the plaintiff simply cannot show that any reasonable jury could find that Officer Bragg's conduct was malicious, sadistic, and imposed not to restore order, but only to cause harm.