County of Sacramento v. Lewis, 523 U.S. 833 (1998)

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OCTOBER TERM, 1997

Syllabus

COUNTY OF SACRAMENTO et al. v. LEWIS, et al., personal representatives of the ESTATE OF LEWIS, DECEASED

certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the ninth circuit

No. 96-1337. Argued December 9, 1997—Decided May 26, 1998

After petitioner James Smith, a county sheriff's deputy, responded to a call along with another officer, Murray Stapp, the latter returned to his patrol car and saw a motorcycle approaching at high speed, driven by Brian Willard, and carrying Philip Lewis, respondents' decedent, as a passenger. Stapp turned on his rotating lights, yelled for the cycle to stop, and pulled his car closer to Smith's in an attempt to pen the cycle in, but Willard maneuvered between the two cars and sped off. Smith immediately switched on his own emergency lights and siren and began high-speed pursuit. The chase ended after the cycle tipped over. Smith slammed on his brakes, but his car skidded into Lewis, causing massive injuries and death. Respondents brought this action under 42 U. S. C. § 1983, alleging a deprivation of Lewis's Fourteenth Amendment substantive due process right to life. The District Court granted summary judgment for Smith, but the Ninth Circuit reversed, holding, inter alia, that the appropriate degree of fault for substantive due process liability for high-speed police pursuits is deliberate indifference to, or reckless disregard for, a person's right to life and personal security.

Held: A police officer does not violate substantive due process by causing death through deliberate or reckless indifference to life in a high-speed automobile chase aimed at apprehending a suspected offender. Pp. 840-855.

(a) The "more-specific-provision" rule of Graham v. Connor, 490 U. S. 386, 395, does not bar respondents' suit. Graham simply requires that if a constitutional claim is covered by a specific constitutional provision, the claim must be analyzed under the standard appropriate to that specific provision, not under substantive due process. E. g., United States v. Lanier, 520 U. S. 259, 272, n. 7. Substantive due process analysis is therefore inappropriate here only if, as amici argue, respondents' claim is "covered by" the Fourth Amendment. It is not. That Amendment covers only "searches and seizures," neither of which took place here. No one suggests that there was a search, and this Court's cases fore-close finding a seizure, since Smith did not terminate Lewis's freedom

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