Monthly Archives: October 2014

A federal judge filed a ruling Monday that eviscerated the lawsuit filed by 126 Seattle cops decrying their employer's new use-of-force policies.

The cops filed a suit in May claiming that federally mandated use-of-force policies intended to correct a 2011 Department of Justice finding of "pattern of excessive force" in the department violated officers' constitutional rights to self-defense and legal searches and seizures.

The suit was filed against U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, the City of Seattle, Mayor Ed Murray, former Mayor Mike McGinn, the Seattle police chief, City Attorney Pete Holmes and Merrick Bobb, the Department of Justice's monitor of the Seattle Police Department, among several others.

The lawsuit argued that the new force guidelines, which took effect Jan. 1, violated officers' Second Amendment right to bear arms for the purpose of self-defense, as well as a Fourth Amendment right to be protected from illegal seizures. The complaint also alleged a violation of the Equal Protection Clause, saying the new force policies burdened their fundamental rights.

Read more background on the lawsuit here.

At the time, the Seattle Police Department distanced itself from the claims of its officers and U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan derided the lawsuit as "without merit."

Judge Marsha Pechman seemed to agree in her Monday dismissal of the lawsuit.

First, she granted Bobb's motion to dismiss the suit against him because he is legally immune from lawsuits as an actor of the federal court at the behest of a judge.

As for the Second Amendment complaint, Pechman wrote, "(W)hile the Second Amendment protects and individual's right to bear arms, the Second Amendment does not provide that individuals have a right to use a firearm in any particular way."

She goes on:

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Federal court dismisses SPD cops' lawsuit decrying use-of-force reforms