Christopher L. Watts v. J. McKinney and S.J. Steinberg

In his handwritten declaration under oath in his opposition as plaintiff to defendant John McKinney’s motion for summary judgment, Christopher Watts stated the following:

In the light of this declaration, the district court held that a triable issue of fact was raised, i.e., whether McKinney had applied force "maliciously and sadistically to cause harm" in violation of the Eighth Amendment. Hudson v. McMillian, 503 U.S. 1, 7 , 112 S.Ct. 995 , 117 L.Ed.2d 156 (1992). As to McKinney’s claim of qualified immunity, the district court followed Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194 , 121 S.Ct. 2151 , 150 L.Ed.2d 272 (2001). The act attributed to McKinney violated a clearly established constitutional right "of which a reasonable person would have known." Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818 , 102 S.Ct. 2727 , 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1981).

McKinney, represented by the attorney general of California, appeals, contending that Watts’ declaration if accepted as true states no violation of the Eighth Amendment and that “a reasonable officer in defendant McKinney’s position would not necessarily have believed” that his conduct was unlawful. McKinney blunts Watts’ precise delineation of the assault upon…