Case Citation
Barnes v. Felix, No. 23-1239 (cert. granted Oct. 4, 2024)
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Ashtian Barnes was driving his girlfriend’s rental car when he was pulled over by Officer Roberto Felix, Jr. for toll violations that a previous renter had acquired. When Officer Felix instructed Ashtian to exit the vehicle, the car began to move slowly forward. In two seconds, Officer Felix jumped onto the car’s door sill and shot Barnes at close range, hitting him twice. Officer Felix continued to hold Ashtian at gunpoint while he bled to death.
Ashtian’s mother sued Officer Barnes for violating the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment ban on excessive police force. But the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed her claim, holding that Officer Barnes’s behavior was reasonable when viewed at the two-second “moment of the threat.” In doing so, the Fifth Circuit diverged from the majority of the Courts of Appeals, which analyze whether police use of force is reasonable under the “totality of the circumstances,” following the Supreme Court’s instructions in Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386 (1989).
In 2024, U.S. police killed more people than any year on record. Reasoned decision-making in individual civil rights lawsuits plays an important role in determining why this is, giving policymakers evidence to use when determining how best to balance safeguards against wrongful killings with the realities of on-the-ground policing. If courts limit inquires to the moment of the threat alone, the public is deprived of important facts and contexts at the heart of an accurate determination of whether police use of deadly force is reasonable.
Why is This a Key Case?
RFK Human Rights, representing the Southern Borders Communities Coalition as amici, filed a brief urging the Supreme Court to reject the moment of the threat doctrine and to recognize that police use of deadly force must be both necessary and proportionate, in accordance with international human rights legal standards.
Our brief asks the Supreme Court to honor the United States’ international human rights law commitments and supports a mother seeking justice for her son, the victim of unnecessary and disproportionate police violence, killed over the simple act of driving a rental car with outstanding toll violations incurred by another driver.
Nov. 20, 2024
Amicus brief filed
RFK Human Rights filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court urging adoption of international human rights requirements of proportionality and necessity in police use of force.
Case Partners
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Southern Border Communities Coalition
Formed in March 2011, the Southern Border Communities Coalition brings together 60 organizations from San Diego, CA to Brownsville, TX.
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Roxanna Altholz, Human Rights Clinic at University of California Berkeley School of Law
Roxanna Altholz is an international human rights lawyer and scholar with extensive experience in international and national fora.