00-2326 Newsome v. McCabe

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“Putting Buckley and all problems of establishing causation to one side, we make the normal immunity inquiry: was it clearly established in 1979 and 1980 that police could not withhold from prosecutors exculpatory information about fingerprints and the conduct of a lineup? See Wilson, 526 U.S. at 614-18; Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 639 (1987); Saucier v. Katz, No. 99-1977 (U.S. June 18, 2001). The answer is yes: The Brady principle was announced in 1963, and we applied it in Jones to affirm a hefty award of damages against officers who withheld exculpatory information in 1981. This is not to say that McCabe or McNally did anything wrong; like the district judge we have taken the evidence and all reasonable inferences in Newsome’s favor, as the summary-judgment standard requires… If Newsome can prove what he alleges, then under the approach of Brady and Jones v. Chicago he will establish a violation of the due process clause, a kind of violation for which officers McCabe and McNally do not have immunity. This is not the basis of the district court’s order, nor is it Newsome’s preferred theory – malicious prosecution is not tenable as an independent constitutional theory – but we may affirm a decision on any ground that the record supports. The decision of the district court rejecting defendants’ affirmative defense of qualified immunity is accordingly affirmed.

Affirmed.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Plunkett, J., Easterbrook, J.