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Johnny Barnes v. Joseph Gerhart, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, No. 17-60287 · judgment April 26, 2018

Certiorari denied · February 19, 2019
Pre-decision estimate: 4% cert probability

Before the decision, roughly the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for a Fifth Circuit decision below, a dissent in the court below (flagged in the petition), and a petition filed soon after the judgment below.

Question presented

In the summer of 2010, Officer Johnny Barnes participated in a joint drug-surveillance operation. A confidential informant was sent into the home of a white male who had been involved in three drug deals over the course of the preceding month. Inside the home, the confidential informant was ordered to use drugs at knife point. Officer Barnes attempted to save the confidential informant but mistakenly entered a home two houses away after a white male was observed running inside.

  1. Did the Fifth Circuit wrongly hold that Officer Barnes’ mistake was “unreasonable” under the Fourth Amendment?

  2. In the alternative, did the Fifth Circuit wrongly deny Officer Barnes qualified immunity?

  3. At a minimum, should this case be GVR’d in light of Sause v. Bauer, 138 S.Ct. 2561 (June 28, 2018), Kisela v. Hughes, 138 S.Ct. 1148 (Apr. 2, 2018), and District of Columbia v. Wesby, 138 S.Ct. 577 (Jan. 22, 2018).

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Gary E. Friedman
Phelps Dunbar

For respondent
Charles Robert McRae
McRae Law Firm

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 3 conferences

Proceedings

  1. Apr 09 2019
    Record returned to the U.S.C.A. for the Fifth Circuit (1 envelope).
  2. Feb 19 2019
    Petition DENIED.
  3. Jan 30 2019
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 2/15/2019.
  4. Jan 23 2019
    Record received from the U.S.D.C. for the Southern District of Mississippi (one DVD). The remainder of the record is available on PACER.
  5. Jan 15 2019
    Record received from the U.S.C.A. for the Fifth Circuit (1 envelope).
  6. Jan 03 2019
    Record Requested.
  7. Dec 05 2018
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/4/2019.
  8. Nov 21 2018
    Reply of Johnny Barnes not accepted for filing. (December 04, 2018)(Corrected version submitted)
  9. Nov 21 2018
    Reply of petitioner Johnny Barnes filed.(12/4/2018)
  10. Nov 15 2018
    Brief of respondents Joseph Gerhart, et al. in opposition filed.(11/16/2018)
  11. Nov 15 2018
    Brief of Joseph Gerhart, et al. in opposition not accepted for filing. (November 16, 2018)(Corrected version Submitted).
  12. Oct 16 2018
    Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including November 19, 2018.
  13. Oct 12 2018
    Motion to extend the time to file a response from October 19, 2018 to November 19, 2018, submitted to The Clerk.
  14. Sep 19 2018
    Response Requested. (Due October 19, 2018)
  15. Sep 05 2018
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 9/24/2018.
  16. Jul 19 2018
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due August 22, 2018)