Vanessa Dundon v. Kyle Kirchmeier, No. 22-1246 (8th Cir. 2023)
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This appeal arises from a protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline at the Backwater Bridge in Morton County, North Dakota. Police officers deployed water, tear gas, rubber bullets, and bean bags to disperse a crowd. Plaintiffs participated in the protest, and they were allegedly injured by the officers’ use of force. The protestors sued Morton County, the City of Mandan, Stutsman County, the law enforcement chiefs for those municipalities, and one hundred unnamed officers. The district court* granted summary judgment for Defendants.
The Eighth Circuit affirmed. The court explained that it was not clearly established in November 2016 that the officers’ use of force to disperse protestors violated a constitutional right under the Fourth Amendment. Thus, the need for training and supervision on dispersal of protestors was not so obvious that it can be characterized as deliberate indifference to the protestors’ rights to be free from unreasonable seizures. Further, the court explained that as with the municipalities, there is insufficient evidence here of deliberate indifference by supervisors where the alleged constitutional right was not clearly established.
Court Description: [Colloton, Author, with Wollman and Benton, Circuit Judges] Civil case - Civil rights. In an action claiming defendants violated plaintiffs' civil rights by their use of force (fire hoses, tear gas, rubber bullets, and bean bags) to disperse a protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline at the Backwater Bridge in Morton County, North Dakota, the district court granted defendants summary judgment, and plaintiffs appeal seeking reinstatement of their Section 1983 claims against the individual officers for using excess force, their claims against the municipalities alleging unconstitutional policies, and their claim against three defendants for supervisory liability. Held: (1) even assuming plaintiffs could proceed against the unnamed police officers (Does 1-100), the protestors have not shown that it was clearly established on the date of the incident that use of force to disperse a crowd constituted a seizure; the plaintiffs have not established a clearly established right under the Fourth Amendment, and the district court properly dismissed their claims against the officers under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments; (2) the municipalities were entitled to summary judgment under Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658 (1978); as it was not clearly established that the officers' use of force to disperse protestors violated a constitutional right under the Fourth Amendment, and the need for training and supervision on dispersal of protestors was not so obvious that it can be characterized as deliberate indifference to the protestors' rights to be free from unreasonable seizures; (3) with respect to the claims against the supervisor defendants, there was insufficient evidence here of deliberate indifference by supervisors where the alleged constitutional right was not clearly established.
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