James v. Bryant, Jr. v. United States Treasury Department, Secret Service, and Jeff Jordan Brian v. Hunter

903 F.2d 717 James V. BRYANT, Jr., Plaintiff-Appellee, v. UNITED STATES TREASURY DEPARTMENT, SECRET SERVICE, Defendant, and Jeff Jordan; Brian V. Hunter, Defendants-Appellants. No. 88-5889. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted March 10, 1989. Decided May 18, 1990. Robert A. Pallemon, Asst. U.S. Atty., Los Angeles, Cal., for defendants-appellants. Richard Eiden, Los Angeles, Cal., for plaintiff-appellee. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California. Before SCHROEDER, FLETCHER and TROTT, Circuit Judges. FLETCHER, Circuit Judge: 1 Plaintiff-appellee James V. Bryant brought a Bivens action after his arrest by two agents of the United States Secret Service. The agents, Jeff Jordan and Brian V. Hunter ("defendants"), bring an interlocutory appeal from the district court's denial in part of their summary judgment motion seeking dismissal based on qualified immunity. 1 Bryant does not cross-appeal other decisions of the district court granting partial summary judgment to these defendants and dismissing other defendants. FACTS 2 On May 3, 1985, a sergeant from the University of Southern California (USC) campus security…

Plaintiff-appellee James V. Bryant brought a Bivens action after his arrest by two agents of the United States Secret Service. The agents, Jeff Jordan and Brian V. Hunter (“defendants”), bring an interlocutory appeal from the district court’s denial in part of their summary judgment motion seeking dismissal based on qualified immunity. 1 Bryant does not cross-appeal other decisions of the district court granting partial summary judgment to these defendants and dismissing other defendants.

FACTS

On May 3, 1985, a sergeant from the University of Southern California (USC) campus security telephoned defendant Hunter. The sergeant told Hunter that Bryant had, earlier that day, delivered two photocopies of a handwritten letter to two USC administrative offices. 2 The sergeant told Hunter that the letter contained references to a plot to murder President Reagan.

The letter describes a large-scale conspiracy by “Communist white men within the National Council of Churches,” whom Bryant refers to collectively as “Mr. Image.” In a rambling discourse the letter describes in general terms and with tangential references a conspiracy directed against black males; it condemns Mr. Image, who is…

dissenting:

I base my respectful quarrel with the majority opinion primarily on one point: I do not believe it was unreasonable for Special Agents Hunter and Jordan to have come to the informed and trained conclusion that they had reasonable cause to believe that Bryant was the murderous “Mr. Image” who was planning and threatening to kill the President of the United States.

Of course, to those of us who are rational, none of Bryant’s behavior makes any sense, but it did to Bryant, and that is the point. Fantasy cannot be judged by rational standards. One must suspend disbelief and cope with the fantasizer’s world. Agents of the Secret Service do this every day as they cope with unstable people who threaten and stalk our public officials. Stable rational people don’t attack Presidents. John Hinckley’s thought process leading up to his shooting of President Reagan did not make any sense either, but that did not stop him from his assassination attempt. Using the attempted murder of the President to get a date with a movie star is no less strange than either the “thinking” in Bryant’s letter or his behavior. Yet the majority opinion insists on measuring what confronted Hunter and…