No. 18-1435

Matthew Wayne Minard, Individually and in His Official Capacity as a Taylor Police Officer v. Debra Lee Cruise-Gulyas

Lower Court: Sixth Circuit
Docketed: 2019-05-15
Status: Denied
Type: Paid
Response Waived
Tags: civil-rights constitutional-rights discretion discretionary-action discretionary-enforcement due-process first-amendment fourteenth-amendment fourth-amendment free-speech law-enforcement qualified-immunity retaliation retaliatory-arrest traffic-stop
Key Terms:
SocialSecurity DueProcess FirstAmendment FourthAmendment CriminalProcedure
Latest Conference: 2019-10-01
Question Presented (from Petition)

I. Did the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals define the "clearly established" constitutional rights at issue in this qualified immunity case at too high a level of generality?

II. A Michigan police officer initiated a traffic stop of a vehicle for speeding. Exercising his discretion, the police officer issued a ticket to the driver for a lesser citation, known as a "non-moving" violation. As she was driving away from the traffic stop, the driver displayed her raised middle finger at the police officer. In response to this offensive speech, the police officer immediately initiated a second traffic stop – within 100 yards of the first traffic stop – for the purposes of amending the traffic citation to the original speeding charge.

Was it clearly established at the time of the second traffic stop that a police officer could not immediately initiate a second traffic stop, in response to a driver's offensive speech, to change his original, discretionary decision and issue a citation for the original speeding violation?

Question Presented (AI Summary)

Whether a police officer can immediately initiate a second traffic stop in response to a driver's offensive speech to change the original discretionary citation, given the clearly established constitutional rights at the time

Docket Entries

2019-10-07
Petition DENIED.
2019-06-26
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 10/1/2019.
2019-06-04
Waiver of right of respondent Debra Lee Cruise-Gulyas to respond filed.
2019-04-29
Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due June 14, 2019)

Attorneys

Debra Lee Cruise-Gulyas
Hammad A. KhanBlackstone Law, PLLC, Respondent
Matthew W. Minard
Mark W. PeyserHoward & Howard Attorneys PLLC, Petitioner