Court Opinion

ID: 9433651
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:40:55.319193+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:43.224402
License: Public Domain

Chief Justice Rehnquist,
concurring.
I join the opinion of the Court in this case. The first question presented in the county’s petition for certiorari is:
‘Whether, in a police pursuit ease, the legal standard of conduct necessary to establish a violation of substan*856tive due process under the Fourteenth Amendment is ‘shocks the conscience’. . . or is ‘deliberate indifference’ or ‘reckless disregard.’ ” Pet. for Cert. i.
The county’s petition assumed that the constitutional question was one of substantive due process, and the parties briefed the question on that assumption. The assumption was surely not without foundation in our case law, as the Court makes clear. Ante, at 846-847. The Court is correct in concluding that “shocks the conscience” is the right choice among the alternatives posed in the question presented, and correct in concluding that this demanding standard has not been met here.