Brief of The New Civil Liberties Alliance as Amicus Curiae in Support of the Petition for Rehearing En Banc
En banc rehearing of this matter is imperative. The panel mishandled this case by refusing to resolve whether the defendants had violated the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights. The appellants correctly assert that the Fourth Amendment most certainly prohibits the police from using a search warrant as an artifice for personally enriching themselves through the theft of a suspect’s property. See Pet. for Rehearing En Banc at 6 (May 3, 2019). Moreover, if the panel’s decision remains unchanged, police officers will be immune from constitutional liability for blatant thievery. In choosing not to decide whether police theft violates the Constitution, the panel transformed qualified immunity into absolute impunity from constitutional liability