Re: Supreme Court grants review Martin v. United States wrongful FBI SWAT raid

On Feb 1, 2025 at 9:03:39 AM PST, ""Adam H. Kerman"" <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:

FBI SWAT raided the wrong house. Both the house number and street were
different. Apparently the city was correct. (Somebody commented that he
was dismayed that ability to verify that one is at the house named on
the warrant isn't a prerequisite for leading a raid.)

I just don't get how this happens. Whenever we did a search warrant, we
checked and double-checked and triple-checked. We would have the house under
surveillance for the 24 hours before the raid, we'd note who was coming and
going. We even ran the tags of the cars in the driveway right before the raid
to ensure we knew who they belonged to and if they came back to people we'd
never heard of before, we stopped everything until we could call back to the
field office and get Penelope Garcia to tell us who they were.

The parties were handcuffed and guns were pointed at them. Illegal
trespass and plenty of property damage before FBI would acknowledge its
mistake. One of the raiders said they'd make repairs but that never
happened.
 
At district court the claim didn't survive the motion to dismiss. 11th
Circuit (I assume it was a three-judge panel) upheld the trial court.
 
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit upheld the
district courts dismissal of Martin and Cliatts claims. The
family then came to the Supreme Court, which agreed on Monday to
decide whether their claims under the FTCA are barred under the
Constitutions supremacy clause, on the theory that decisions
like the one at issue by the FBI agents in this case can have a
connection to advancing federal policy and therefore takes
precedence over state law, and to weigh in on the application of
the discretionary function exception.

I would make a poor judge because I would find it extremely difficult to focus
on these legal technicalities and not just the fact that citizens should not
have to put up with this shit and have no recourse when it does happen.

I loathe the fact that the government unmercifully hold you responsible for
every honest mistake you make but then when it makes a fucking doozy, it just
walks away and says, "Too bad, so sad, sucks to be you."