{"id":63915,"date":"2026-04-25T13:26:53","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T18:26:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=63915"},"modified":"2026-04-25T14:33:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T19:33:21","slug":"ca5-officers-touching-parents-arm-to-get-her-through-a-door-for-four-seconds-was-de-minimis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=63915","title":{"rendered":"CA5: Officer&#8217;s touching parent&#8217;s arm to get her through a school door for four seconds was de minimis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In a school grounds dispute, a parent\u2019s arm was grabbed for four seconds to move her through a doorway. \u201cUnder the circumstances, we cannot say that such de minimis force was \u2018clearly\u2019 excessive and unreasonable. \u2026 Dupuy knew that the Department was investigating potential child abuse and that it had instructed the school not to release the girl to the Carters&#8217; custody. Carter was visibly upset, demanded custody of her child, and refused to comply with Dupuy&#8217;s instructions. For the safety of everyone involved, Dupuy removed Carter from the office. Once Carter was outside, Dupuy ceased all force. We hold that the force used by Dupuy was de minimis, and that Carter suffered no violation of the Fourth Amendment. The district court thus erred in denying qualified immunity.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ca5.uscourts.gov\/opinions\/pub\/25\/25-30213-CV0.pdf\">Carter v. Dupuy<\/a>, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 11159 (5th Cir. Apr. 20, 2026).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Defense counsel in the post-conviction hearing couldn\u2019t remember why he didn\u2019t file a motion to suppress a car because of a single GSR particle found two months after the crime. The court implies defendant\u2019s standing was doubtful. His allegations of what he would have proved at a suppression hearing by calling his friends to show his connection to the car was potentially self-defeating because they could be questioned about his connection to the car. Instead, defense counsel crossed on the weight to be given the single GSR particle which was reasonable. Malcolm v. State, 2026 Ga. LEXIS 108 (Apr. 21, 2026).*<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a school grounds dispute, a parent\u2019s arm was grabbed for four seconds to move her through a doorway. \u201cUnder the circumstances, we cannot say that such de minimis force was \u2018clearly\u2019 excessive and unreasonable. \u2026 Dupuy knew that the &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=63915\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,23,69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-excessive-force","category-ineffective-assistance","category-seizure"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63915"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63921,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63915\/revisions\/63921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}