164
Opinion of the Court
Richard Gladden argued the cause pro hac vice for petitioners. With him on the briefs was Don Gladden.
Brett A. Ringle argued the cause for respondents. With him on the brief for respondents Tarrant County Narcotics Intelligence and Coordination Unit et al. was Dixon W. Holman. Kevin J. Keith filed a brief for respondent City of Grapevine, Texas, and Tim G. Sralla and Wayne K. Olson filed a brief for respondent City of Lake Worth, Texas.*
Chief Justice Rehnquist delivered the opinion of the Court.
We granted certiorari to decide whether a federal court may apply a "heightened pleading standard"—more stringent than the usual pleading requirements of Rule 8(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure—in civil rights cases alleging municipal liability under Rev. Stat. § 1979, 42 U. S. C. § 1983. We hold it may not.
We review here a decision granting a motion to dismiss, and therefore must accept as true all the factual allegations in the complaint. See United States v. Gaubert, 499 U. S. 315, 327 (1991). This action arose out of two separate incidents involving the execution of search warrants by local law
*Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed for the State of Texas et al. by Dan Morales, Attorney General, Will Pryor, First Assistant Attorney General, Mary F. Keller, Deputy Attorney General, Adrian L. Young, Michael P. Hodge, Sharon Felfe, and Ann Kraatz, Assistant Attorneys General, and for the Attorneys General for their respective States as follows: Jimmy Evans of Alabama, Charles E. Cole of Alaska, Winston Bryant of Arkansas, Daniel E. Lungren of California, Robert A. Marks of Hawaii, Robert T. Stephan of Kansas, Nicholas J. Spaeth of North Dakota, Ernest D. Preate, Jr., of Pennsylvania, James E. O'Neil of Rhode Island, T. Travis Medlock of South Carolina, Mark Barnett of South Dakota, Paul Van Dam of Utah, Jeffrey L. Amestoy of Vermont, Mary Sue Terry of Virginia, Mario J. Palumbo of West Virginia, James E. Doyle of Wisconsin, and Joseph B. Meyer of Wyoming; for the City of College Station, Texas, by Catherine Locke; for the National Institute of Municipal Law Officers et al. by Richard Ruda; and for the Texas Municipal League et al. by Susan M. Horton.
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