Opinion ID: 218770
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Procedural History and the District Court's Rulings

Text: Plaintiffs filed their original Complaint on April 3, 2008, and they then filed an amended pleading on May 22, 2008. The federal Defendants moved to dismiss pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1), 12(b)(2), and 12(b)(6). On May 7, 2009, the District Court, for the most part, denied the motion. Among other things, it specifically ordered that Defendants' motion to dismiss claims against the Washington, D.C.-based supervisory defendants, Myers and Torres, for lack of personal jurisdiction is denied. (JA45 (emphasis omitted).) It further ordered that Defendants' motion to dismiss claims on the ground of qualified immunity against the four supervisory defendants, Myers, Torres, Weber, and Rodriguez is denied without prejudice and allowed for limited discovery (in the form of interrogatories and a single deposition of each Appellant) as well as for the issue of qualified immunity to be raised again following this discovery. ( Id. (emphasis omitted).) In its accompanying opinion, the District Court purported to apply the Supreme Court's ruling in Bell Atlantic v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007), to the allegations against Appellants. In short, it concluded that Plaintiffs sufficiently alleged that Appellants knew of and then acquiesced in the wrongdoing of their subordinates and thereby adequately stated a claim that Appellants possessed the degree of personal involvement required for liability under Bivens. On May 18, 2009, the Supreme Court decided Iqbal. Appellants moved for reconsideration based on this new opinion, and, following the filing of the Second Amended Complaint on June 8, 2009 (which merely identified one of the previously anonymous Plaintiffs), moved to dismiss pursuant to Rules 12(b)(1), 12(b)(2), 12(b)(6), and 15. On January 28, 2010, the District Court denied the motion to dismiss without prejudice except with respect to plaintiff Ontaneda's equal protection claim which is dismissed. (JA64A.) In its opinion, the District Court rejected Appellants' theory that the Supreme Court's decision worked a substantial change in the existing law governing the qualified immunity analysis and the liability of supervisors, at least in the specific circumstances presented by the current proceeding. Because Plaintiffs advanced claims under the Fourth Amendment, they were not required to show discriminatory purpose (unlike their counterpart in Iqbal who brought a claim of invidious discrimination under the First and Fifth Amendments). According to the District Court, they therefore adequately allege that [Appellants] had actual knowledge, initiated, and directed their subordinate agents to go beyond the limits of their non-judicial warrants in violation of Plaintiffs' Fourth Amendment rights to be free from illegal searches and seizures. Argueta v. U.S. ICE, No. 08-1652, 2010 WL 398839, at  (D.N.J. Jan. 27, 2010). In other words, there are sufficient factual allegations set forth in the Complaint for the Court, in applying its experience and common sense, to conclude that there is a plausible claim against each [Appellant] that their personal involvement, direction and knowledge or acquiescence permitted a search of the residence of plaintiffs without consent in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Id. at . The District Court, however, did explain that Iqbal mandated the dismissal of the equal protection claim advanced by Ontaneda because Plaintiffs conceded that there was no direct evidence of any purposeful discrimination. Appellants filed a timely notice of appeal. We subsequently allowed for the filing of two amicus briefs in support of Plaintiffs and the District Court's rulings, which were submitted by: (1) Amici Curiae Public Justice, the Prisoners' Rights Project of the Legal Aid Society of the City of New York, and the Pennsylvania Institutional Law Project; and (2) Amici Curiae LatinoJustice PRLDEF, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Newark.