Opinion ID: 170450
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Analogous Torts: Police, Prison, and School Discipline Cases

Text: Plaintiffs argue we should resolve their substantive due process claim through the familiar prism of constitutional cases dealing with police encounters, prison confinement, and school discipline. They point, for example, to the legal standard established in police excessive force cases, where we look to, among other factors, (1) whether the victim was suspected of a crime, (2) the severity of the crime, (3) whether the suspect was armed, (4) the suspect's compliance with police commands, and (5) the danger created by the encounter. See, e.g., Estate of Larsen ex rel. Sturdivan v. Murr, 511 F.3d 1255, 1259-61 (10th Cir.2008). In prison confinement cases, our framework is slightly different. There, we examine whether force was applied in a good-faith effort to maintain or restore discipline, or maliciously and sadistically to cause harm. Serna v. Colo. Dep't of Corr., 455 F.3d 1146, 1152 (10th Cir.2006) (quotation omitted) (analyzing injuries occurring during cell lockdown). Lastly, Plaintiffs point to our school discipline cases. In these types of cases, [a]s in the cognate police brutality cases, the substantive due process inquiry . . . must be whether the force applied caused injury so severe, was so disproportionate to the need presented . . . that it amounted to a brutal and inhumane abuse of official power literally shocking to the conscience. Garcia ex rel. Garcia v. Miera, 817 F.2d 650, 655 (10th Cir.1987) (quoting Hall v. Tawney, 621 F.2d 607, 613 (4th Cir.1980)) (discussing excessive corporal punishment in an elementary school). Regardless of the context of these cases, Plaintiffs argue Berney's unprovoked attack violated their substantive due process rights on two grounds common to all of the cases. First, the application of force was severe, given the injuries alleged in the complaint. Second, the application of force was grossly disproportionate to any reasonable purpose. Berney's administrative task in delivering licensing notice to the business can hardly be described as calling for fast or physical action. The confrontation at The Golden Bone was thus not an emergency. In the context of Berney's conduct, however, Plaintiffs' analogies are not particularly helpful. Comparing Berney's unprovoked attack to the use of force by police, prison officials, and school disciplinarians ignores two interrelated characteristics common to the excessive force cases and absent from this one: (1) Police officers, prison officials, and even school authorities are cloaked with the state's imprimatur to use some level of force when necessary. See, e.g., Garcia, 817 F.2d at 654 (explaining that ordinary corporal punishment violates no substantive due process rights of school children) (citing Ingraham v. Wright, 430 U.S. 651, 97 S.Ct. 1401, 51 L.Ed.2d 711 (1977)). (2) In excessive force cases the government official's position is precisely what enables the official to harm the victim. The official has a right to exercise physical control. A reasonable person would not feel at liberty to resist an arresting police officer's necessary force. Nor would prisoners feel free to resist a guard maintaining order. And the same applies to school children who, while not restricted to the same degree as arrestees [and] convicts . . ., are similarly involved in an environment where the state has some lawful control over their liberty. Hilliard v. City and County of Denver, 930 F.2d 1516, 1520 (10th Cir.1991). The misuse of power is most obvious, moreover, where the official has the opportunity to deliberate, and still chooses to inflict harm. Lewis, 523 U.S. at 853, 118 S.Ct. 1708 (discussing cases where the defendant has the time to deliberate but goes on to harm the victim anyway). Focusing on the two characteristics yields the following analysis: in the typical excessive force cases involving government actors, officials enjoy an express authorization to use some degree of force and, relying on their official positions, misuse that authorization. When a public school teacher, for example, exceeds the permitted level of force and inflicts upon a student what amounts to an arbitrary and severe beating, the substantive due process doctrine condemns the act, labeling it a conscience-shocking abuse of official power. Thus, when the two characteristics show up in a case, we can safely say the abus[e] or misus[e of] government power . . . demonstrate[s] a degree of outrageousness . . . that is truly conscience shocking. Livsey, 275 F.3d at 957-58. But we have never held that an official government position alone (without, for example, the abuse of that position) warrants liability under the rubric of substantive due process. The presence of the two interrelated characteristics(1) authorization to use force and (2) the resultant misuse of power in reliance on the official positionin our excessive force jurisprudence explains why we elevate an official's misconduct above ordinary tort law.