Opinion ID: 783723
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Doctrine of qualified immunity

Text: 8 The doctrine of qualified immunity shields from liability for civil damages those officials whose conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known. Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982). We evaluate a defendant's claim of qualified immunity by determining whether (1) a constitutional violation occurred, (2) the right violated was clearly established, and (3) the plaintiff has alleged sufficient facts, and supported the allegations by sufficient evidence, to indicate that what the official allegedly did was objectively unreasonable in light of the clearly established constitutional rights. Williams v. Mehra, 186 F.3d 685, 691 (6th Cir.1999) (en banc). 9 Scicluna contends that the defendants violated a clearly established constitutional right when they showed deliberate indifference to his serious medical and safety needs. Such conduct is prohibited by the Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause of the Eighth Amendment. Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97, 104, 97 S.Ct. 285, 50 L.Ed.2d 251 (1976). To show that he was subjected to such deliberate indifference, Scicluna need not prove that the defendants had the express intent to inflict unnecessary pain, but only that their conduct demonstrated a level of obduracy and wantonness greater than simple inadvertence or error in good faith. . . . Whitley v. Albers, 475 U.S. 312, 319, 106 S.Ct. 1078, 89 L.Ed.2d 251 (1986).