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Travis Morse, Individually and in His Official Capacity as a Police Officer for the Town of Orono, Maine, et al. v. Christopher French

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, No. 20-1650 · judgment October 1, 2021


Certiorari denied · October 11, 2022
Pre-decision estimate: 3% cert probability

Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate, with no standout signals pointing toward a grant.

Questions presented

  1. Did the First Circuit depart from this Court’s qualified immunity precedent by defining clearly established law at a high level of generality and failing to consider the particular facts of the case?

  2. Did the First Circuit disrupt the careful balance struck by this Court’s formulation of qualified immunity when it denied Officers Morse and Gray qualified immunity notwithstanding the absence of clearly established law as to the lawful bounds of the knock and talk exception to the warrant requirement?

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Amy Kay Olfene
Drummond Woodsum & MacMahon, P.A.

For respondent
Bernard J. Kubetz
Eaton Peabody

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 3 conferences

Proceedings

  1. Oct 11 2022
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Oct 03 2022
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 10/7/2022.
  3. Sep 22 2022
    Rescheduled.
  4. Aug 19 2022
    Reply of petitioners Travis Morse, et al. filed. (Distributed)
  5. Aug 10 2022
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 9/28/2022.
  6. Jul 21 2022
    Brief of respondent Christopher French in opposition filed.
  7. Jun 21 2022
    Response Requested. (Due July 21, 2022)
  8. Jun 07 2022
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 6/23/2022.
  9. Jun 01 2022
    Waiver of right of respondent Christopher French to respond filed.
  10. Apr 28 2022
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due June 1, 2022)