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Sonia Garcia, et vir v. Wesley Blevins, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, No. 19-20494 · judgment April 30, 2020

Certiorari denied · January 11, 2021
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 counsel who has filed here before.

Questions presented

  1. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted qualified immunity reasoning facts demonstrating that a person shot and killed by police had not threatened anyone, was holding a gun pointed down at his side, was not suspected of any crime, and was not fleeing were irrelevant. Was it clearly established that a person merely holding a gun has a Fourth Amendment right to be free from deadly force?

  2. May courts consider unpublished decisions as persuasive authority in resolving the clearly established prong of qualified immunity cases?

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Randall Lee Kallinen
Kallinen Law PLLC

For respondent
Robert William Higgason
City of Houston Legal Department

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Proceedings

  1. Jan 11 2021
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Dec 02 2020
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/8/2021.
  3. Oct 19 2020
    Waiver of right of respondent Wesley Blevins to respond filed.
  4. Sep 28 2020
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due November 16, 2020)