The US Supreme Court has unanimously revived a lawsuit filed by an Atlanta family whose home was wrongly raided by the FBI in 2017. The ruling, issued on Thursday, allows Trina Martin and Toi Cliatt to pursue their case against the federal government.
The predawn raid saw an armed FBI SWAT team smash in the front door and set off a flashbang grenade, pointing guns at the couple and terrifying their seven-year-old son. The agents quickly realised they were at the wrong address and apologised, with the team leader later attributing the error to his personal GPS device.
The family sued for assault, battery, false arrest and other violations, but lower courts dismissed the case. The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the agents' actions amounted to an honest mistake, and that the lawsuit was barred under the Supremacy Clause, which holds that federal law takes precedence over state law.
The Supreme Court overturned that decision, agreeing with the family's lawyers that Congress intended to allow such lawsuits following similar high-profile wrongful raids in 1974. Public interest groups from across the political spectrum had urged the justices to intervene, warning that the lower court's reasoning would severely restrict citizens' ability to sue the federal government for law enforcement misconduct.
