Willie Bruce Bryant v. Alexandra D. Leonardis, et al.

The Eleventh Circuit held that law enforcement officers are shielded by qualified immunity for executing a facially deficient, single-sentence arrest warrant that remained inactive in the system for nearly a year, by relying entirely on extrinsic, unsworn knowledge completely absent from the four corners of the affidavit. The questions presented are:

1. Whether a federal court adjudicating a civil rights claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 may grant qualified immunity by relying on an officer's extrinsic, unsworn knowledge to retroactively cure a facially deficient arrest warrant—a practice permitted by some circuits but expressly forbidden by others under Malley v. Briggs, 475 U.S. 335 (1986).

2. Whether facts known to an affiant showing that an accused used force defensively under Georgia law, O.C.G.A. § 16-3-21, may be excluded from a probable cause affidavit on the ground that they relate solely to a potential affirmative defense, where the governing state statute, O.C.G.A. § 16-3-24.2, explicitly confers absolute immunity from criminal prosecution — a question on which the Second, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Circuits are sharply divided from the Third and Eleventh Circuits and the Supreme Court of Washington.

3. Whether a supervisor who reviews a bare-bones warrant application, recognizes that it establishes no offense, and permits the warrant to stand unexecuted for 353 days is entitled to qualified immunity — an approach that conflicts with the Third and Ninth Circuits, which impose liability for a supervisor's knowledge of and acquiescence in a subordinate's constitutional violation.