The Supreme Court is giving an Atlanta family whose home was wrongly raided by the FBI a new day in court.

An Atlanta family whose home was wrongly raided by the FBI will get a new day in court, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Thursday.

The opinion comes after a predawn 2017 raid in which an armed FBI SWAT team smashed in a front door and set off a flashbang grenade, pointing guns at a couple and terrifying a 7-year-old boy before realizing they were in the wrong house.

The FBI team quickly apologized and left for the right place, with the team leader later saying that his personal GPS device had led him to the wrong address. But Trina Martin and her then-boyfriend, Toi Cliatt, and her son were left with trauma and a damaged home.

Martin and Cliatt filed a lawsuit against the federal government accusing the agents of assault and battery, false arrest and other violations. But lower courts tossed out the case. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found they couldn’t sue over what amounted to an honest mistake.

  • Supervisor194@lemmy.world
    2·
    4 days ago

    Anybody with an inside track on this story that can explain this? A unanimous decision by this SCOTUS is rare, particularly one that would benefit a minority family terrorized by government goons. I would think Thomas and Alito would be positively salivating at the idea.

    • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      2·
      4 days ago

      A federal judge in Atlanta dismissed the suit in 2022 and the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision last year. The Supreme Court agreed in January to take up the matter.

      The key issue before the justices is under what circumstances people can sue the federal government in an effort to hold law enforcement accountable. Martin’s attorneys say Congress clearly allowed for those lawsuits in 1974, after a pair of law enforcement raids on wrong houses made headlines, and blocking them would leave little recourse for families like her.

      In dismissing Martin’s case, the 11th Circuit largely agreed with that argument, saying courts can’t second-guess police officers who make “honest mistakes” in searches. The agent who led the raid said his personal GPS led him to the wrong place. The FBI was looking for a suspected gang member a few houses away.

      https://apnews.com/article/georgia-fbi-raid-supreme-court-lawsuit-9cb55aa6f45bbf02c29d84363c7c9e6f

      • Supervisor194@lemmy.world
        3·
        4 days ago

        I’m not seeing how this explains why Alito and Thomas would vote for it? Seems like they’d love the idea for the FBI to be able to make “honest mistakes.” Perhaps they’re going to leverage this to put Biden’s dessicated husk in jail or something idfk?

        Edit: I’m trying to say this makes no sense for these two ghouls to be on this side of the effort, so I’m cynically asking what’s the shadow agenda.

    • pishadoot@sh.itjust.works
      1·
      4 days ago

      About half of SCOTUS decisions are unanimous. The just don’t make the news.

      The 6/3 splits usually do but they’re actually much more rare.