WASHINGTON—On Wednesday, an innocent man who was brutalized by members of a joint federal/state task force in 2014 once again asked the United States Supreme Court to hear his case. This is the third time James King and his attorneys from the Institute for Justice (IJ) have petitioned the nation’s highest court to hear his case, but the law has changed since the previous times the case was before the court.

“What we are asking for in this case is as simple as it is just: If the law changes in the middle of a case, the parties should be permitted to change the way they choose to litigate,” said IJ Senior Attorney Patrick Jaicomo. 

In 2014, when James was a college student, he was brutally beaten after two officers on a joint state-federal task force mistook him for a suspect he looked nothing like. For the past 11 years, James has sought to hold those officers accountable.

James originally brought claims against the individual officers for violating his constitutional rights, as well as claims against the U.S. government under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). The Supreme Court originally agreed to hear James’ case back in 2020, but ultimately sent the case back to the Sixth Circuit to take a second look. When the case went back to the lower court, it created an immunity for the officers under the FTCA. That led James and IJ to ask the Supreme Court to overturn that decision in 2023, but the court declined to hear that case, leading to the newest petition, which asks the court to allow him to replead his case under the new law the court announced and allow his decade-old claims to finally proceed against the officers who violated his constitutional rights.

Through its Project on Immunity and Accountability IJ seeks to ensure that every right guaranteed by the Constitution has a remedy in an American court. IJ is currently helping people seeking accountability after being improperly detained in California, Arizona, and Florida. IJ recently settled a case that made its way to the Supreme Court and was on behalf of Texas councilwoman falsely arrested by her political opponents.