Patrick Jaicomo

Patrick Jaicomo is a Senior Attorney at the Institute for Justice and one of the leaders of its Project on Immunity and Accountability. Through the project, Patrick works to dismantle judicially created immunity doctrines and ensure that individual rights are enforceable against the government and its agents. He has litigated immunity and accountability issues—including qualified immunity, judicial immunity, Bivens, and the Federal Tort Claims Act—across the United States and at every level of the American court system.

Four of Patrick’s cases have reached the U.S. Supreme Court. In November 2020, he argued the police brutality case Brownback v. King. Patrick returned to the Court in March of 2024 for the First Amendment retaliatory arrest case Gonzalez v. Trevino, which his colleague Anya Bidwell argued, and again in October 2024, when the Court granted, vacated, and reversed the denial of a similar retaliation claim in Murphy v. Schmitt. Most recently, Patrick argued the FBI wrong-house raid case Martin v. United States and secured a unanimous victory from the Supreme Court in June of 2025.

Before joining IJ, Patrick was a litigator at a private firm in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he cultivated a civil rights practice and handled a variety of cases in state and federal court. He earned his law degree from the University of Chicago and a degree in economics and political science from the University of Notre Dame.

Patrick’s work has been featured in numerous publications, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and USA Today. He has appeared on numerous podcasts and television and radio programs, authored several academic articles, and frequently gives presentations on his areas of expertise.