Supreme Court Report

Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →

Carter Davenport v. Estate of Marquette F. Cummings, Jr.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, No. 17-13999 · judgment October 2, 2018

Certiorari denied · June 24, 2019
Pre-decision estimate: 7% cert probability (95% interval 5%–11%)

Before the decision, about 1.7× the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for a circuit split argued in the petition, a dissent in the court below (flagged in the petition), and an Eleventh Circuit decision below.

Question presented

This Court has long held that a state official does not lose the federal defense of qualified immunity merely because he has acted inconsistently with a state law. See Davis v. Scherer, 468 U.S. 183 (1984). This is so even if the state official “ignores a clear legal command” found in state law. Id. at 194. This case presents the following question: Whether a state official’s qualified immunity defense to a claim for money damages necessarily fails if he cannot first prove that he had authority under state law to perform the challenged act.

Counsel of record

For petitioner
James William Davis
State of Alabama, Office of the Attorney General

For respondent
Paul Whitfield Hughes
McDermott Will & Emery

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Proceedings

  1. Jun 24 2019
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Jun 04 2019
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 6/20/2019.
  3. Jun 03 2019
    Reply of petitioner Carter Davenport filed. (Distributed)
  4. May 20 2019
    Brief of respondent Estate of Marquette Cummings in opposition filed.
  5. May 07 2019
    Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is further extended to and including May 20, 2019.
  6. May 06 2019
    Motion to extend the time to file a response from May 13, 2019 to May 20, 2019, submitted to The Clerk.
  7. Apr 09 2019
    Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including May 13, 2019.
  8. Apr 08 2019
    Motion to extend the time to file a response from April 12, 2019 to May 13, 2019, submitted to The Clerk.
  9. Mar 11 2019
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due April 12, 2019)