Case Citator › Donald Saucier v. Elliot M. Katz and in Defense of Animals

Donald Saucier v. Elliot M. Katz and in Defense of Animals

Is it still good law? What later courts have actually done to this case.

Overruled in part
Court
Supreme Court of the United States
Citation
533 U.S. 194
Decided
Confirmed treatments
2
Flagged citations read
1,170 of 1,188
Treatment dates
2008–2009
Overruled in part
A reviewed court has overruled part of this case’s holding. Saucier v. Katz is overruled in part: all 1,188 flagged citations were checked: 1,170 were read, the text of 17 citing opinions could not be retrieved, and the 2 confirmed treatments are listed below. Pearson v. Callahan made Saucier's two-step sequence discretionary instead of mandatory while preserving it as often appropriate.
More on how this was screened

Egolf v. Witmer had already recognized a narrow exception when the constitutional question depended on unsettled state law. The remaining reviewed opinions applied Saucier's surviving qualified-immunity rules, reported Pearson's act in history parentheticals, or placed nearby adverse language on another authority or procedural ruling.

The treatments below are confirmed; unread citations could still change the overall status.
Every treatment on this page is written from the citing opinion itself, with a verbatim quote, never copied from a commercial citator. A citation flagged by our screen but not shown here was read and found not to weaken this case, except the ones whose text could not be retrieved.

1,188 citations to Donald Saucier v. Elliot M. Katz and in Defense of Animals sat close to treatment language and were flagged for reading; 1,170 of them have been read, and the text of 17 citing opinions could not be retrieved, so those remain unread. Citations that did not sit near treatment language were not flagged and were not read one by one, so a court that weakened this case without using any of that language would not appear here.

Relying on Donald Saucier v. Elliot M. Katz and in Defense of Animals?

This page shows what later courts did to it. Ask about your specific facts and see whether it still carries your argument, with citations you can check.

Treatments

Overruled in Part

  • The Supreme Court overruled Saucier's requirement that courts always decide the constitutional-violation prong before the clearly-established prong, while preserving the two-prong test and recognizing that Saucier's sequence is often appropriate.

    Pearson v. Callahan · Supreme Court of the United States · filed

    On reconsidering the procedure required in Saucier, we conclude that, while the sequence set forth there is often appropriate, it should no longer be regarded as mandatory. The judges of the district courts and the courts of appeals should be permitted to exercise their sound discretion in deciding which of the two prongs of the qualified immunity analysis should be addressed first in light of the circumstances in the particular case at hand.
    Read the full opinion on CourtListener →

Limited

  • The Third Circuit created an exception to Saucier's mandatory constitutional-question-first sequence when the constitutional issue depends on unsettled state law.

    Egolf v. Witmer · Third Circuit · filed

    We find such cases to be exceptions to the constitutional analysis requirement of Saucier, because the purpose of Saucier would be undermined. In concluding that we will not analyze the First or Fourth Amendment issues in this case, we find a decision of the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to be persuasive in reasoning that the underlying principle of law elaboration is not meaningfully advanced in situations, such as this, when the definition of constitutional rights depends on a federal court’s uncertain assumptions about state law.
    Read the full opinion on CourtListener →

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