Supreme Court revives excessive-force suit against officer who killed Houston area traffic stop
The Supreme Court revived on Thursday a lawsuit brought by the mother of an armed Texas man who was killed by a policeman during a traffic check on a highway near Houston.
Roberto Feliz of the Harris County Constable’s Office stopped Ashtian Barnes (a Black man) because his girlfriend’s car rental, which he drove to pick up their daughter from daycare, had unpaid tolls. Felix, who was on the running board, shot Barnes twice as he drove away with the driver’s side door still open. Barnes died at the scene. Janice Hughes Barnes filed a civil lawsuit against the officer, but it was dismissed by a lower court after they determined that the officer did not use excessive force and violated the Fourth Amendment. Eight years after the death of her son, she brought the case before the Supreme Court. The justices were asked to decide whether a federal appellate court had used the right test in determining whether Felix had violated Barnes constitutional rights by using excessive violence against him. The Supreme Court, in a unanimous ruling written by Justice Elena Kagan concluded that it did not. They sent the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals of the 5th Circuit, for a second look.
The case goes back to 2016, when Felix pulled over the Toyota Corolla Barnes was driving after receiving a radio alert indicating that the car’s toll violations were not paid. Barnes claimed that he didn’t have his license or proof of insurance with him and that his girlfriend rented the vehicle.
Felix ordered Barnes to exit the car. Barnes opened the car door, but then turned it back on. Felix jumped onto the doorsill of the car as the car started moving forward. Felix fired two shots at the car. Barnes stopped it, as shown by dashcam footage. Barnes died at the scene. Ashtian Barnes’ mother, Janice Barnes, filed a federal court complaint, alleging that Felix had violated Ashtian’s Fourth Amendment right to be free from excessive force. The lower courts dismissed her claim. The Fourth Amendment asks whether the force Felix used was reasonable. The court of appellates determined that the “moment” of the threat in Barnes’s case was the two seconds that Felix stood on the door sill of the Corolla as it moved forward. During that time, Felix may have believed his life was at risk.
Judge Patrick Higginbotham expressed concern about the 5th Circuit’s use of moment-of threat doctrine and its reliance upon analysis of the “precise time” of deadly force. “A routine traffic check has once again resulted in the death an unarmed black male,” he wrote.
Janice Barsey went to the Supreme Court which, on Thursday, overturned the 5th Circuit decision. In a nine page opinion, Kagan explained how a court’s “inquiry” into the “reasonableness of police force” requires a fact-bound, ‘totality of the circumstances’ analysis. She stressed that such an inquiry has no time limit and that courts can take into account the events and facts that led up to the use force. He argues instead that the 5th Circuit allows courts to consider broader facts and circumstance. Kagan also stressed that the justices did not weigh in on who or whether courts should consider the extent to which the police officer contributed to the dangerous scenario leading to the use force. She said that the lower courts never addressed the issue because they were so time-bound.
The Justices sent the case back to lower courts to “consider the reasonableness of this shooting using the longer timeframe we have specified.” He suggested that courts should not only consider whether the traffic violation itself poses a threat to public safety, but also whether a driver’s decision fleeing the traffic stop poses a similar risk. A Fourth Amendment analysis, Kavanaugh wrote, should take into account “the suspect’s attempt ‘to evade’ the officer” and “the extraordinary dangers and risks facing police officers and the community at large.”
Posted in Featured, Merits Cases
Cases: Barnes v. Felix
Recommended Citation:
Amy Howe
The Supreme Court has revived the excessive force lawsuit against an officer who killed a Houston area motorist during a traffic stop.
SCOTUSblog
(May. 16, 2025, 1:59 PM),
