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LIRA@BC Law

Abstract

On June 6, 2017, in Lowry v. City of San Diego, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit sitting en banc upheld a district court’s grant of summary judgment, dismissing a claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for use of excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, in the context of “bite and hold” training for police dogs. This Comment argues that although the use of force in Lowry may have been reasonable, the court was incorrect in deciding this question as a matter of law. The fact-intensive objective reasonableness test should only be resolved through summary judgment on those rare occasions where the facts of the situation are not in dispute and the answer is clear as a matter of law.

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File nameDate UploadedVisibilityFile size
01_dobrott_A1b.pdf
6 Sep 2022
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552 kB

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Metadata

  • Subject
    • Animal Law

    • Constitutional Law

    • Fourth Amendment

    • Law Enforcement and Corrections

  • Journal title
    • Boston College Law Review

  • Volume
    • 59

  • Issue
    • 9

  • Pagination
    • E. Supp. 1

  • Date submitted

    6 September 2022