Cite as: 536 U. S. 730 (2002)
Thomas, J., dissenting
present in this case. See 240 F. 3d, at 981 ("It is important to analyze the facts in these cases, and determine if they are 'materially similar' to the facts in the case in front of us").
To be sure, the Court of Appeals did not also ask whether respondents' conduct so obviously violated the Eighth Amendment that respondents' assertion of qualified immunity could be overcome in the absence of case law involving "materially similar" facts. The majority must believe that the Court of Appeals, therefore, has implicitly abandoned its prior qualified immunity jurisprudence. I, on the other hand, believe it is far more likely that the Court of Appeals omitted such a discussion from its opinion for a much simpler reason: Given petitioner's allegations, it thought that the argument was so weak, and the alleged actions of respondents so far removed from " 'the hazy border between excessive and acceptable force,' " Priester, supra, at 926 (quoting Smith, supra, at 1419), that it was not worth mentioning.
B
Turning to the merits of respondents' assertion that they are entitled to qualified immunity, the relevant question is whether it should have been clear to McClaran, Pelzer, and Gates in 1995 that attaching petitioner to a restraining bar violated the Eighth Amendment. As the Court notes, at that time Alabama was the only State that used this particular disciplinary method when prisoners refused to work or disrupted work squads. See ante, at 733. Previous litigation over Alabama's use of the restraining bar, however, did nothing to warn reasonable Alabama prison guards that attaching a prisoner to a restraining bar was unlawful, let alone that the illegality of such conduct was clearly established. In fact, the outcome of those cases effectively fore-closes petitioner's claim that it should have been clear to respondents in 1995 that handcuffing petitioner to a restraining bar violated the Eighth Amendment.
755
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