SPECIAL: U.S. Supreme Court Media Kit

Does a federal badge allow a police officer to violate your constitutional rights with absolute impunity? The answer is “yes,” according to the U.S. 5th Circuit Courts of Appeals in a case with a small business owner/mechanic. Nearly 60 million Americans now live in states where the courts offer absolute immunity to federal officers who violate someone’s constitutional rights. As one federal judge recently lamented, “Private citizens who are brutalized—even killed—by rogue federal officers can find little solace” in the current accountability framework.

The court decided that Kevin Byrd could not sue Department of Homeland Security Agent Ray Lamb. As captured by a security camera, Lamb stopped Kevin in a parking lot, pointed a gun at him, threatened to “blow his head off”—even going so far as to pull the trigger of his loaded gun that jammed—and used his federal badge to have Kevin arrested, even though Kevin did nothing illegal. Lamb was trying to prevent Kevin from investigating a drunk driving incident involving the agent’s son.

If state or local police officers took the same actions as Lamb, they could be held accountable by their victims for clearly violating their constitutional rights. Although qualified immunity typically prevents victims from holding state and local officers answerable for rights violations, Lambs’ actions were so egregious that qualified immunity could not shield him from a lawsuit. But because he was employed by the federal government—not a state or local government—the courts let him off the hook. This left Kevin with no chance to take him to court so a judge or a jury can decide if his actions violated the Constitution. That is all he sought with his cases: a chance to bring Lamb into a court of law and allow a judge or jury to decide if he violated his rights. But the court of appeal gave blanket immunity—what amounts to absolute immunity—to this rogue federal officer and prevented him from potentially being held accountable for what he did to his demonstrably innocent victim.  And, unfortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review this leaving Kevin with nowhere else to turn to secure justice.

This absolute immunity for federal police officers makes no sense and violates the principle that where there is a right, there must be a remedy.

Simply put, the courts have turned a federal badge into a shield against the Constitution, and that needs to change.  IJ will continue this fight until justice is at last secured for those whose rights are violated by federal officers and officials.

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Kevin Byrd’s Experience

Although other federal courts of appeals have ruled that a federal badge is not a shield against the Constitution, the 5th Circuit, which covers Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, has held that it is, , enabling federal police officers to violate constitutional rights with absolute impunity

This was the nightmare small business owner Kevin Byrd experienced. He awoke one night to a phone call informing him that his ex-girlfriend had been in a bad car crash and might not live. He soon learned that she and her then-boyfriend were kicked out of a restaurant and that the boyfriend had been driving when they hit a parked Greyhound bus at 70 mph.

Kevin went to the restaurant to ask about what had happened leading up to the crash. When he was about to drive out of the parking lot, the boyfriend’s father, Ray Lamb, approached Kevin’s vehicle. Lamb was a Department of Homeland Security officer. He pointed his gun at Kevin through the car windshield, tried to smash the driver’s side window with the gun, and told Kevin he would “put a bullet through his f–king skull” and “blow his head off.” He then pulled the trigger, but thankfully it jammed. A security recording of the incident documents the encounter. Kevin called 911 for help. Agent Lamb called 911, too, to have Kevin arrested so he would stop looking into his son’s drunk driving.

When officers arrived, Lamb displayed his federal badge, and officers detained Kevin in a squad car. After officers watched the surveillance video of the incident, however, they arrested Lamb for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and let Kevin go.

Kevin sued Lamb for violating his Fourth Amendment rights by threatening him with a gun and unlawfully detaining him. The trial court concluded that Lamb’s conduct was so clearly unconstitutional that qualified immunity could not shield him from the lawsuit. On appeal, however, the 5th Circuit ruled that because Lamb held a federal badge, that alone shielded him from being held accountable; as a result, Kevin’s case was dismissed.

Also the 5th Circuit reasoned that Kevin’s case presented a different set of facts than those the Supreme Court has recognized allow federal officers to be held liable for constitutional violations. But as one judge on the panel observed, this decision furthers a rights-without-remedies regime: “If you wear a federal badge, you can inflict excessive force on someone with little fear of liability.”

The Argument

Kevin’s petition argued that the 5th Circuit ignored foundational constitutional rights. Simply put: You don’t need a permission slip from Congress to sue for violations of your Fourth Amendment rights. You could do so directly under the Constitution, without Congress providing you with a statute, such as Section 1983. The 5th Circuit also departed from other appellate courts of appeals, giving federal police officers absolute immunity in 10 states while a different standard applies in other parts of the country.

Unfortunately, the Supreme Court denied review in Kevin’s case and, while holding Kevin’s case for review, decided another case called Egbert v. Boule, further extending federal immunity. As a result, most victims of federal abuse now have nowhere to turn for constitutional accountability.

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