No. 25-1108

Christopher Zook, et al. v. Scott Fuqua

Lower Court: Tenth Circuit
Docketed: 2026-03-23
Status: Pending
Type: Paid
Tags: clearly-established-law excessive-force fourth-amendment motion-to-dismiss qualified-immunity section-1983
Latest Conference: N/A
Question Presented (from Petition)

1. Video evidence standard at Rule 12(b)(6). Whether a district court may, or must, consider objective video evidence at the motion-to-dismiss stage when that evidence is central to the complaint and blatantly contradicts or utterly discredits the allegations of a plaintiff's complaint in a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 excessive-force action, given a circuit split between the Sixth and Eleventh Circuits (which permit consideration of such videos) and the Tenth Circuit (which does not)?

2. False Plausibility. Whether a § 1983 plaintiff can satisfy the plausibility standard of Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662 (2009), and Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544 (2007), by strategically omitting known facts, here, that the decedent fled the police in a reckless manner by vehicle, fired a weapon at officers just prior to being shot, and was running toward an occupied civilian vehicle at the time of the shooting, when including those facts would defeat the claim?

3. Clearly established law and Tennessee v. Garner. Whether Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1 (1985), standing alone, clearly establishes a Fourth Amendment violation sufficient to defeat qualified immunity at the pleading stage in a factually complex officer-involved shooting in which the decedent had moments earlier fired a weapon at officers, ignored repeated commands, and fled toward an occupied civilian vehicle, contrary to this Court's repeated instructions that clearly established law must be defined with specificity and particularity to the facts of the case. See White v. Pauly, 580 U.S. 73 (2017); Rivas-Villegas v. Cortesluna, 595 U.S. 1 (2021).

Question Presented (AI Summary)

Whether a district court may consider objective video evidence at the motion-to-dismiss stage in a § 1983 excessive-force action when that evidence contradicts the plaintiff's allegations, and whether a plaintiff can satisfy the plausibility standard by strategically omitting material facts, and whether Tennessee v. Garner clearly establishes a Fourth Amendment violation sufficient to defeat qualified immunity in a factually complex officer-involved shooting

Docket Entries

2026-03-19
Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due April 22, 2026)

Attorneys

Christopher Zook, et al.
Brandon G. HussThe New Mexico Association of Counties, Petitioner