In
Bray v. Planned Parenthood Columbia-Willamette, Inc., (6th Cir., March 21, 2014), the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in an opinion highly critical of the U.S. Marshals Service and others nevertheless upheld the dismissal on qualified immunity grounds of a suit against two U.S. Marshals over a raid they conducted. Planned Parenthood had obtained an $850,000 judgment against Michael Bray, a minister and anti-abortion activist who authored the book
A Time To Kill, and previously spent 4 years in prison for his connection with bombings of abortion clinics.. (
Background.) This lawsuit grew out of the execution of a writ to seize property to satisfy Planned Parenthood's judgment. The writ specifically authorized seizure of Bray's computers, cameras, books and writings. Representatives of Planned Parenthood went along with the marshals The 6th Circuit said:
If the facts alleged in the complaint are true, this case involves an incident that is more like home raids by Red Guards during China’s Cultural Revolution than like what we should expect in the United States of America. A surprise raid was made on a judgment debtor’s home to enforce an order of execution on property of the debtor. The order was ostensibly for the purpose of obtaining property of value to be seized, but was obviously focused instead on all means for the debtor to express ideas....
Nonetheless, the officers are protected from suit by the doctrine of qualified immunity, because these constitutional rights were not clearly established at the time of the violations.... [T]he legal and factual scenario presented in this action is not identical to any the Sixth Circuit or the Supreme Court has previously addressed....
