Search And Seizure Case Study

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The police enforce laws at local, state, and federal levels. One of the duties that the police perform under their legitimate rights is search and seizure. For the police to prevent unnecessary claims, search and seizure as other duties must be performed in conformity with prevailing laws it may be local, state or federal even though some exceptions might apply. The Fourth Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment of the United Sates (US) Constitution provide the rules that apply to search and seizure at federal and state levels (Varone, 2012). As it is obvious, search and seizure is somewhat a privation of liberties, and thus, some citizens contest such behaviors by filling law suits against law enforcement officials. A Kansas inhabitant appealed
He then fled the police who chased him and tackled him. He fell and broke one of his arms. After questioning and ID check by the police, he was released (Open Jurist, 1995). He brought the case before a state court where he filed a lawsuit against the Wichita Police Department and the Police Officer Joe Doe, but the state court finally ruled against the plaintiff (Open Jurist, 1995). Not satisfied by the state court ruling, he filed the same lawsuit against the same defendants at a US district court, and unfortunately, the US district court considered the case as resolved by the state court and used claim preclusion and issue preclusion rules to dismiss the complaint (Open Jurist, 1995). The plaintiff then appealed the US district court decision before the Tenth Circuit of the US Court of Appeals (Open Jurist, 1995). In general, all these statements represent a summary of the
First, the court was required to decide if the district court has fairly taken the final judicial decision in conformity with laws. This concerned its ruling in relation with res judicata and collateral estoppel, which the court used to dismiss the case. According to Christian (2011), an act is considered forever solved once the litigation is purged and the time of appeals expired. This was an important question the court of appeals should address. Second, a court of appeals is entitled to give legal decisions on constitutional matters that oppose citizens and government agencies that are appealed. In this case, the court was required to decide if the constitutional rights of the plaintiff were violated or not (Open Jurist, 1995).
The Ruling of the Court
The Tenth Circuit of the US Court of Appeals ruled against the decision of district court saying that the decision to dismiss the case using claim and issue preclusions was wrong (Open Jurist, 1995). Otherwise, the district should allow a relitigation of the case. However the court found that the constitutional rights of the complainant were not violated by the police officers or by the City Wichita (Open Jurist, 1995). As consequences, the police were not liable of the actions complained by Sir Kevin Giese.
The

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