Opinion ID: 33402
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Use of Racial Epithets

Text: 57 The district court held that plaintiffs' oral harassment claim was insufficient because plaintiffs failed to make an equal protection claim or even refer to the Fourteenth Amendment in their pleadings. The court also concluded that even if plaintiffs had adequately pleaded an equal protection claim, the law was not clearly established that, in the instant context, racial slurs alone are actionable under the Fourteenth Amendment. On appeal, plaintiffs argue that the racial slurs allegedly used by the police violate the Fourth Amendment, because the Fourth Amendment embraces all elements of a search and seizure. To support their assertion that oral racial harassment violates the Fourth Amendment, however, plaintiffs rely on precedent prohibiting racial insults and discrimination under the Fourteenth Amendment. 60 Plaintiffs attempt to explain, with little justification, that although the prohibition against oral harassment based on race occurred in the context of the Equal Protection clause, the same prohibition is part of the Fourth Amendment and thus applies to police conduct. 58 We agree with the district court that use of racial epithets deserves our strongest condemnation. None would dispute that this form of harassment is highly reprehensible, even more so if it occurred in conjunction with the already invasive and humiliating strip searches. 59 Nevertheless, as appalling as such behavior would be, here it would only aggravate a seizure that we have already concluded was unlawful. Thus, whether the use of racial epithets alone amounts to a separate and independent constitutional violation under the Fourth Amendment is a question we need not reach because it is not before us today. We have impliedly held that racial epithets that accompany harassment or a violation of established rights may amount to a separate equal protection violation. 61 In this case, however, for whatever reason, plaintiffs chose not to make an equal protection claim.