A Cop’s Lies Put Her in Jail for 2 years—Now She’s Asking the Supreme Court for Justice
Hamdi Mohamud escaped war-torn Somalia when she was a child. As a teenager in Minnesota, she found herself caught in a web of well-documented lies and manipulation spun by St. Paul police officer Heather Weyker. In 2011, Weyker was deputized as part of a federal task force. At that time, the officer created outright lies to have Hamdi arrested and put in jail, even though Hamdi was innocent of any crime and Weyker had no reason to believe otherwise.
Somali Refugee Asks Supreme Court for Justice
Hamdi Mohamud escaped war-torn Somalia when she was a child. As a teenager in Minnesota, she found herself caught in a web of well-documented lies and manipulation spun by St. Paul police officer Heather Weyker. In 2011, Weyker was deputized as part of a federal task force. At that time, the officer created outright lies to have Hamdi arrested and put in jail, even though Hamdi was innocent of any crime and Weyker had no reason to believe otherwise. Nonetheless, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Hamdi cannot sue Weyker for ruining so much of her life through her unconstitutional acts for one simple and outrageous reason: Weyker performed all her misdeeds while holding a federal badge.
This absolute immunity for federal police officers makes no sense and violates the principle that where there is a right, there must be a remedy. That’s why, on August 6, 2021, the Institute for Justice (IJ) filed petitions with the U.S. Supreme Court asking it to reverse the 8th Circuit’s decisions in Hamdi’s cases.
Simply put, the courts have turned a federal badge into a shield against the Constitution, and that needs to change.
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