Donald Logsdon, Jr. v. United States Marshal Service, et. al.

The Institute for Justice (IJ) submitted an amicus brief in the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, urging the judges to overturn a lower court’s decision preventing a victim of police brutality from making his case in court.  

In March 2020, Deputy U.S. Marshals executed a warrant against Donald Logsdon for a suspected firearm offense. When they arrived, they found Logsdon working on his neighbor’s generator. Instead of approaching him and executing the warrant, the officers snuck up behind Logsdon, kicked him in the head, and took turns stomping on him while he was unconscious. 

Logsdon filed a lawsuit seeking a remedy for the violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. What he didn’t realize is that after the Supreme Court’s decision in Egbert v. Boule, lower courts have made it virtually impossible to sue federal officials for violations of the constitution. As a result, the district court reviewing the case threw out his claim.