4th Amendment Violation

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Maurice Lewis v. City of Chicago, et al.

Case No.: 17-1510

Officials: RIPPLE, SYKES, and BARRETT, Circuit Judges.

Focus: 4^th Amendment Violation

Maurice Lewis spent more than two years in pretrial detention in the Cook County Jail based on police reports falsely implicating him for unlawfully possessing a firearm. After the charges against him were dropped, Lewis sued the City of Chicago and six police officers under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 seeking damages for violation of his rights under the Fourth Amendment and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The district court dismissed the suit, ruling that both claims were time-barred. Lewis appealed. Twelve days later the Supreme Court decided Manuel v. City of Joliet (“Manuel I”), 137 S. Ct. 911, 920 (2017), clarifying that detention without probable cause violates the Fourth Amendment “when it precedes, but also when it follows, the start of legal process in a criminal case.” Id. at 918. The Court declined to decide when such claims accrue, instead remanding the case to this court to resolve that issue. Id. at 922. In September the Manuel panel held that a Fourth Amendment claim for wrongful pretrial detention accrues on the date the detention ends. Manuel v. City of Joliet (“Manuel II”), 903 F.3d 667, 670 (7th Cir. 2018).

The due-process claim is another matter. Manuel I makes clear that the Fourth Amendment, not the Due Process Clause, governs a claim for wrongful pretrial detention. To the extent Hurt v. Wise, 880 F.3d 831, 843–44 (7th Cir. 2018), holds otherwise, it is incompatible with Manuel I and II and is overruled. We therefore reverse the dismissal of the Fourth Amendment claim and affirm the dismissal of the due-process claim, though on different grounds.

Reversed in part. Affirmed in part.

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Derek A Hawkins is trademark corporate counsel for Harley-Davidson. Hawkins oversees the prosecution and maintenance of the Harley-Davidson’s international trademark portfolio in emerging markets.