SCOTUS issues opinions in law enforcement and EPA cases

The U.S. Supreme Court has issued rulings on cases that were argued in the Fall 2021 term, with several of them affecting state and local governments. This article will highlight a few of those cases and their summaries as compiled by Lisa Soronen, with the State and Local Legal Center, specifically those dealing with law enforcement and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issues.

Vega v. Tekoh — In this 6-3 decision, the Court held that law enforcement officers cannot be sued for money damages for not reciting Miranda rights. Tekoh was arrested for a sex crime, which resulted in a confession that Tekoh claimed was obtained using “coercive investigatory techniques.” Deputy Vega disputed that allegation but admitted that he did not read Tekoh his Miranda rights. After his acquittal, Tekoh sued Deputy Vega for violating his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination by not reading him Miranda rights. The Court held that failure to cite Miranda rights is not a violation of the Fifth Amendment, which protects a person from being compelled to witness against themselves in a criminal case because the iconic Miranda case merely imposed a set of prophylactic rules to safeguard a person’s right against selfincrimination during police interrogation. It did not create a new standard for violating a person’s Fifth Amendment rights.

Rivas-Villegas v. Cortesluna — In this per curiam decision, the Supreme Court upheld qualified immunity for law enforcement officers by reversing the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision that had threatened the doctrine. A young girl called 911 and stated that she, her sister, and mother had locked themselves in a room because the mother’s boyfriend, Cortesluna, was threatening to hurt them with a chainsaw. Officers arrived and ordered Cortesluna to leave the house when they noticed a knife protruding from his pants pocket. After failure to comply with the order to put his hands up, police shot him twice with a beanbag gun, after which he complied with officers’ orders. At that point, for no more than 8 seconds, Officer Rivas-Villegas put his left knee on the left side of Cortesluna’s back, the side of his body where the knife was, and put the suspect’s arms behind his back while another officer removed the weapon and handcuffed the suspect.

The Ninth Circuit, interpreting LaLonde v. County of Riverside, ruled that leaning with a knee on a suspect who is lying face-down without resisting is excessive force. Qualified immunity protects officers from being sued for money damages for potential violations of citizens’ constitutional rights unless they violated “clearly established” law. The Supreme Court found that the facts of LaLonde’s arrest were “materially distinguishable” from Cortesluna’s arrest and “did not govern the facts of this case.” Officers in LaLonde were responding to a mere noise complaint as opposed to a serious allegation of armed domestic violence. Additionally, LaLonde was unarmed, whereas Cortesluna had a knife protruding from his pocket, which he had appeared to reach for. The Court also noted the brief period Rivas-Villegas had his knee on Cortesluna’s back as well as the location of his knee, near where the knife was being confiscated, as opposed to the officer in LaLonde, who “deliberately dug his knee into his back when he had no weapon and had made no threat when approached by police.”

LINDSEY FRENCH General Counsel

City of Tahlequah v. Bond — In another per curiam ruling by the Supreme Court, the Court again reversed a denial of qualified immunity for two law enforcement officers. The officers shot suspect Dominic Rollice after his ex-wife told 911 that Rollice was intoxicated in her garage and refused to leave. During conversation with the officers, Rollice wielded a hammer with both hands and faced them as if going to swing a baseball bat. Ignoring the officers’ commands to drop the hammer, Rollice raised the hammer high behind his head and took a stance as if preparing to charge at the officers. The officers both fired their weapons, and Rollice was struck and killed. The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals cited case law, including Allen v. Muskogee, that it claimed clearly established that the officers used excessive force. The Supreme Court found the facts of Allen to be dramatically different from the facts here. In Allen, the officers were responding to a potential suicide call by running at a car screaming and attempting to physically disarm the suspect. In contrast, the officers in this case engaged in a conversation from a distance with Rollice and did not escalate to yelling at the suspect until after he picked up a potential weapon. The Court determined that they were entitled to qualified immunity.

West Virginia v. EPA — The Court ruled 6-3 that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) acted outside of its authority designated by Congress under the Clean Air Act to issue its Clean Power Plan (CPP). The Clean Air Act gave the EPA the authority to implement air-pollution standards for “the best system of emission reduction” (BSER). In 2015, the EPA issued the CPP, stating that the BSER for existing power plants was “generation-shifting” from coal power plants to natural gas, wind and solar energy sources.

In the Court’s opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts said the Clean Air Act did not give the EPA “clear congressional authorization” to regulate in such a sweeping manner. While almost anything could arguably be defined as a “system,” “clear congressional authorization” was required in a case of this magnitude, due to the “history and breadth of the authority” asserted by the EPA as well as the “economic and political sig- nificance” of the EPA’s action. The Court noted that the EPA had never claimed this type of overarching power before in a long-standing statute, giving doubt to Congress’s intent to grant the agency power that broad. Finally, the Court noted that the EPA’s action under its perceived authority allowed it to completely transform the national energy market by implementing regulation that Congress had repeatedly declined to pass itself.