Opinion ID: 791389
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Clearly established nature of the constitutional violation

Text: 33 Having found a violation of Cummings' Fourth Amendment rights, we now turn to whether those rights were clearly established at the time of Cummings' arrest. In order to determine whether a constitutional right is clearly established, we look first to decisions of the Supreme Court, then to decisions of this Court and other courts within our circuit, and finally to decisions of other circuits. Buckner v. Kilgore, 36 F.3d 536, 539 (6th Cir.1994). In order for a constitutional right to be clearly established, there need not be a case with the exact same fact pattern, or even fundamentally similar or materially similar facts; rather, the question is whether the defendants had fair warning that their actions were unconstitutional. Hope, supra, 536 U.S. at 741, 122 S.Ct. 2508; cf. United States v. Lanier, 520 U.S. 259, 271, 117 S.Ct. 1219, 137 L.Ed.2d 432 (1997) ([G]eneral statements of the law are not inherently incapable of giving fair and clear warning, and in [some] instances a general constitutional rule already identified in the decisional law may apply with obvious clarity to the specific conduct in question, even though the very action in question has not previously been held unlawful.) (quotation and citation omitted). 34 In the instant case, one not need go any further than Supreme Court precedent to see that Cummings' constitutional rights were clearly established. The bedrock Fourth Amendment principles announced in Payton and Welsh demonstrate that the officers' forced warrantless entry into Cummings' home was presumptively unreasonable, and the Court's exigency decisions in Warden and Santana clearly show that Sherman and Vaughn had no objectively reasonable basis for believing that their warrantless entry into Cummings' home was supported by the exigency of hot pursuit of a fleeing felon. Therefore, we find that Sherman and Vaughn are not shielded by qualified immunity, and Cummings' Fourth Amendment claims for the warrantless entry into his home and seizure of his person may go forward. On remand, the trier of fact will need to determine what, if any, injury Cummings suffered as a result of Defendants' actions, and what, if any, monetary damages Cummings is entitled to as compensation.