The Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. that deals with numerous landmark cases. It may be called the last resort for people or organizations that want to find justice. The Supreme Court hears a rather small number of cases per year, and not all petitions filed with it are reviewed (Greenberg & Page, 2018). One of the recent decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court is Thompson v. Clark – this case may become rather significant because of its background and decision.
To begin with, it is essential to provide a summary of the case. It is possible to say that it arose out of a severe misunderstanding between the plaintiff, Larry Thompson, and police officers, including Pagiel Clark et al. In 2014, the plaintiff’s sister-in-law dialed 911 as she thought Larry Thompson and his wife were abusing their child. Although the police officers who arrived to investigate the situation did not have a warrant, they tried to physically enter the house and then arrested Mr. Thompson for not letting them in (Supreme Court of the United States, 2022). He had to spend two days in jail, was charged with resisting arrest, and after several months, the prosecution dismissed the charges (Supreme Court of the United States, 2022). The plaintiff filed a Section 1983 malicious prosecution claim, but a district court decided in favor of the defendants. Several days ago, the Supreme Court investigated the case and reversed the previous decisions.
To reach their decision, the Supreme Court referred to the Civil Rights Act of 1871. Specifically, they used section 1, now codified at 42 U. S. C. §1983 (Legal Information Institute, n.d.). Eventually, the Court held that Mr. Thompson “need not show that the criminal prosecution ended with some affirmative indication of innocence” but “need only show that his prosecution ended without a conviction” (Supreme Court of the United States, 2022, p. 2). I agree with this decision because it is not required from a plaintiff by a Fourth Amendment claim under §1983 for malicious prosecution to prove that their innocence had been established. Additionally, the police officers did not have a warrant in the first place, so the whole situation is unlawful and unfair.
References
Greenberg, E. S., & Page, B. I. (2018). The struggle for democracy, 2018 elections and updates edition (12th ed.). Pearson Education.
Legal Information Institute. (n.d.). 42 U.S. Code § 1983 – Civil action for deprivation of rights. Web.
Supreme Court of the United States. (2022). Thompson v. Clark et al. [PDF document]. Web.