Groh v. Ramirez
Agent Groh of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms prepared an application for a search warrant and a supporting affidavit, and a magistrate issued the warrant. The application properly described the location to be searched–the Ramirez home–and the items sought in the search, but the warrant itself omitted the description of the items. Groh mistakenly typed a description of the Ramirez home in the space provided to list the objects to be seized. Groh told Ramirez what the officers were looking for and provided her with the warrant–but not with the supporting application or affidavit–after the search. Ramirez sued the officers for violating the Fourth Amendment, which requires that a search warrant describe with particularity the place to be searched and the items to be seized. Both parties agree that the warrant was defective, but Groh argued that his verbal description of the items sought prevented a Fourth Amendment violation. The district court agreed, but the court of appeals reversed, finding that Groh only had power to execute the warrant, not to change its contents. The court of appeals also found that Groh was not entitled to qualified immunity–protection from being sued–because no reasonable officer could have read the warrant and believed it was valid.
Questions Presented:
1. Whether the Ninth Circuit properly ruled that a law enforcement officer violated clearly established law, and thus was personally liable in damages and not entitled to qualified immunity, when
at the time he acted there was no decision by the Supreme Court or any other court so holding, and the only lower court decisions addressing the issue had found the same conduct did not violate the
law.
2. Whether law enforcement officers violate the particularity requirement of the Fourth Amendment when they execute a search warrant already approved by a magistrate judge, based on an attached
application and affidavit properly describing with particularity the items to be searched and seized, but the warrant itself does not include the same level of detail.
