Cite as: 536 U. S. 730 (2002)
Thomas, J., dissenting
and determine if they are materially similar to the facts in the case in front of us." 240 F. 3d, at 981 (internal quotation marks omitted). The right not to suffer from "cruel and unusual punishments," U. S. Const., Amdt. 8, is an extremely abstract and general right. In the vast majority of cases, the text of the Eighth Amendment does not, in and of itself, give a government official sufficient notice of the clearly established Eighth Amendment law applicable to a particular situation.10 Rather, one must look to case law to see whether "the right the official is alleged to have violated [has] been 'clearly established' in a more particularized, and hence more relevant, sense: The contours of the right must be sufficiently clear that a reasonable official would understand that what he is doing violates that right." Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U. S. 635, 640 (1987).
In conducting this inquiry, it is crucial to look at precedent applying the relevant legal rule in similar factual circumstances. Such cases give government officials the best indication of what conduct is unlawful in a given situation. If, for instance, "various courts have agreed that certain conduct [constitutes an Eighth Amendment violation] under facts not distinguishable in a fair way from the facts presented in the case at hand," Saucier, supra, at 202, then a plaintiff would have a compelling argument that a defendant is not entitled to qualified immunity.
That is not to say, of course, that conduct can be "clearly established" as unlawful only if a court has already passed on the legality of that behavior under materially similar circumstances. Certain actions so obviously run afoul of the law that an assertion of qualified immunity may be overcome even though court decisions have yet to address "materially similar" conduct. Or, as the Court puts it, "officials can still
10 Cf. Saucier v. Katz, 533 U. S. 194, 201-202 (2001) (discounting as too general the principle that a police officer's use of force violates the Fourth Amendment if it is excessive under objective standards of reasonableness).
753
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