210
Ginsburg, J., concurring in judgment
standard, I conclude that officer Saucier's motion for summary judgment should have been granted. I therefore concur in the Court's judgment. However, I would not travel the complex route the Court lays out for lower courts.
Application of the Graham objective reasonableness standard is both necessary, under currently governing precedent, and, in my view, sufficient to resolve cases of this genre. The Court today tacks on to a Graham inquiry a second, overlapping objective reasonableness inquiry purportedly demanded by qualified immunity doctrine. The two-part test today's decision imposes holds large potential to confuse. Endeavors to bring the Court's abstract instructions down to earth, I suspect, will bear out what lower courts have already observed—paradigmatically, the determination of police misconduct in excessive force cases and the availability of qualified immunity both hinge on the same question: Taking into account the particular circumstances confronting the defendant officer, could a reasonable officer, identically situated, have believed the force employed was lawful? See, e. g., Roy v. Inhabitants of Lewiston, 42 F. 3d 691, 695 (CA1 1994); Rowland v. Perry, 41 F. 3d 167, 173 (CA4 1994). Nothing more and nothing else need be answered in this case.
I
All claims that law enforcement officers have used excessive force in the course of an arrest, Graham made explicit, are to be judged "under the Fourth Amendment and its 'reasonableness' standard, rather than under a 'substantive due process' approach." 490 U. S., at 395. Underlying intent or motive are not relevant to the inquiry; rather, "the question is whether the officers' actions are 'objectively reasonable' in light of the facts and circumstances confronting them." Id., at 397. The proper perspective in judging an excessive force claim, Graham explained, is that of "a reasonable officer on the scene" and "at the moment" force was employed. Id., at 396. "Not every push or shove," the
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