Buzz words:

Excessive force, analyzed, substantive due process, seizure, arrest, investigatory stop, circumstances, sadistically, maliciously, objectively reasonable, courts

Case Summary

Procedural Posture

Petitioner diabetic appealed from a judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirming a directed verdict for respondent law enforcement officers, in a 42 U.S.C.S. § 1983 suit to recover damages for injuries he sustained during an investigatory stop.

Overview

Diabetic filed a 42 U.S.C.S. § 1983 action against respondent law enforcement officers to recover damages for injuries he sustained when physical force was used against him during an investigatory stop, while he was on his way to obtain orange juice to counteract the onset of an insulin reaction. The appellate court endorsed the four-factor test applied by the trial court. The diabetic argued that it was error to require him to prove that the excessive force used against him was applied maliciously and sadistically to cause harm. The Court vacated the judgment, holding that the diabetic’s claims should have been analyzed under the Fourth Amendment’s objective reasonableness standard, rather than under a substantive due process standard. The proper Fourth Amendment inquiry was one of objective reasonableness under the circumstances, and subjective concepts like malice and sadism had no proper place in that inquiry.

Outcome

The court vacated and remanded the judgment of the appellate court. Claims under 42 USCS 1983 that excessive force was used by law enforcement officers in seizing person held properly analyzed under Fourth Amendment’s “objective reasonableness” standard rather than under substantive due process standard.

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Legal Principles

• The court rejects the notion that all excessive force claims brought under 42 U.S.C.S. § 1983 are governed by a single generic standard. Section 1983 is not itself a source of substantive rights, but merely provides a method for vindicating federal rights elsewhere conferred. In addressing an excessive force claim brought under § 1983, analysis begins by identifying the specific constitutional right allegedly infringed by the challenged application of force.
  
  
• Where the excessive force claim arises in the context of an arrest or investigatory stop of a free citizen, it is most properly characterized as one invoking the protections of the Fourth Amendment, which guarantees citizens the right to be secure in their persons against unreasonable seizures of the person.
  
  
• Because the Fourth Amendment provides an explicit textual source of constitutional protection against excessive force and physically intrusive governmental conduct, that Amendment, not the more generalized notion of “substantive due process,” must be the guide for analyzing such claims.
  
  
• Determining whether the force used to effect a particular seizure is “reasonable” under the Fourth Amendment requires a careful balancing of the nature and quality of the intrusion on the individual’s Fourth Amendment interests against the countervailing governmental interests at stake. Fourth Amendment jurisprudence has long recognized that the right to make an arrest or investigatory stop necessarily carries with it the right to use some degree of physical coercion or threat thereof to effect it. Because the test of reasonableness under the Fourth Amendment is not capable of precise definition or mechanical application, however, its proper application requires careful attention to the facts and circumstances of each particular case, including the severity of the crime at issue, whether the suspect poses an immediate threat to the safety of the officers or others, and whether he is actively resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrest by flight.
  
  
• The “reasonableness” of a particular use of force must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, rather than with the 20/20 vision of hindsight. The Fourth Amendment is not violated by an arrest based on probable cause, even though the wrong person is arrested, nor by the mistaken execution of a valid search warrant on the wrong premises. With respect to a claim of excessive force, the same standard of reasonableness at the moment applies. Not every push or shove, even if it may later seem unnecessary in the peace of a judge’s chambers, violates the Fourth Amendment. The calculus of reasonableness must embody allowance for the fact that police officers are often forced to make split-second judgments — in circumstances that are tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving — about the amount of force that is necessary in a particular situation.
  
  
• As in other Fourth Amendment contexts, however, the “reasonableness” inquiry in an excessive force case is an objective one: the question is whether the officers’ actions are “objectively reasonable” in light of the facts and circumstances confronting them, without regard to their underlying intent or motivation.
  
  
• All claims brought under 42 USCS 1983 in which it is alleged that law enforcement officers used excessive force–deadly or not–in the course of an arrest, investigatory stop, or other seizure of a free citizen are properly analyzed under the “objective reasonableness” standard of the Federal Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, rather than under the more generalized standard of “substantive due process” pursuant to the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, because the Fourth Amendment provides an explicit textual source of federal constitutional protection against such physically intrusive governmental conduct. (Blackmun, Brennan, and Marshall, JJ., dissented in part from this holding.)
  
  
• The United States Supreme Court, in reviewing, on certiorari, a case coming to it from a Federal Court of Appeals decision affirming the entry of a directed verdict, will consider the evidence in the light most favorable to the party against whom the directed verdict was entered.
  
  
• 42 USCS 1983 is not itself a source of substantive rights, but merely provides a method for vindicating federal rights elsewhere conferred.
  
  
• For purposes of addressing an excessive force claim brought under 42 USCS 1983, analysis begins–as it does in any 1983 suit–by identifying the specific federal constitutional right allegedly infringed by the challenged application of force, which in most instances will be either the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable seizures of the person or the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishments, which are the two primary sources of constitutional protection against physically abusive governmental conduct; the validity of the claim must then be judged by reference to the specific constitutional standard which governs that right, rather than to some generalized “excessive force” standard; the same analysis applies to determining liability on excessive force claims brought against federal law enforcement and correctional officials under Bivens v Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics (1971) 403 US 388, 29 L Ed 2d 619, 91 S Ct 1999.
  
  
• A seizure triggering the protections of the Federal Constitution’s Fourth Amendment occurs only when government actors have, by means of physical force or show of authority, in some way restrained the liberty of a citizen.
  
  
• The due process clause of the Federal Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment protects a pretrial detainee from the use of excessive physical force that amounts to punishment.
  
  
• The cruel and unusual punishment clause of the Federal Constitution’s Eighth Amendment serves as the primary source of substantive protection in cases where the deliberate use of force after an accused’s conviction is challenged as excessive and unjustified; any protection that substantive due process, under the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, affords convicted prisoners against excessive force is, at best, redundant of that provided by the Eighth Amendment; such Eighth Amendment standard, which is less protective than the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable seizures of persons, applies only after the state has complied with the constitutional guarantees traditionally associated with criminal prosecutions.
  
  
• A determination of whether the force used to effect a particular seizure of an individual is reasonable under the Federal Constitution’s Fourth Amendment requires a careful balancing of the nature and quality of the intrusion on the individual’s Fourth Amendment interests against the countervailing governmental interests at stake; however, because such test is not capable of precise definition or mechanical application, its proper application requires careful attention to the facts and circumstances of each particular case, including the severity of the crime at issue, whether the suspect poses an immediate threat to the safety of law enforcement officers or others, and whether the suspect is actively resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrest by flight.
  
  
• The right of law enforcement officers to make an arrest or investigatory stop of an individual, as a “reasonable” seizure under the Federal Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, necessarily carries with it the right to use some degree of physical coercion or threat thereof to effect such arrest or stop.
  
  
• With respect to a claim brought under 42 USCS 1983 that a police officer has used excessive force in seizing an individual in violation of the Federal Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, the inquiry as to the officer’s “reasonableness” is an objective one, with the question being whether the officer’s actions are objectively reasonable in light of the facts and circumstances confronting the officer, without regard to the officer’s underlying intent or motivation; such reasonableness must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, rather than with the 20/20 vision of hindsight; not every push or shove, even if it may later seem unnecessary in the peace of a judge’s chambers, violates the Fourth Amendment, and the calculus of reasonableness must embody allowance for the fact that police officers are often forced to make split-second judgments about the amount of force that is necessary in a particular situation in circumstances that are tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving; an officer’s evil intentions will not make a Fourth Amendment violation out of an objectively reasonable use of force, nor will an officer’s good intentions make an objectively unreasonable use of force constitutional.
  
  
• The Federal Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, insofar as it provides that a search or seizure must satisfy a standard of reasonableness, is not violated by an arrest based on probable cause even though the wrong person is arrested, nor by the mistaken execution of a valid search warrant on the wrong premises.
  
  
• An analysis of a claim that law enforcement officers used excessive force upon an individual which requires consideration of whether the officers acted either in good faith or “maliciously and sadistically for the very purpose of causing harm” is incompatible with a proper analysis of such claim under the Federal Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, since use of a “malicious and sadistic” factor puts in issue the subjective motivations of the officers, which motivations have no bearing on whether a particular seizure of an individual is unreasonable; subjective concepts like “malice” and “sadism” have no proper place in the Fourth Amendment inquiry, with respect to such claims, of objective reasonableness under the circumstances.
  
  
• In assessing the credibility of a law enforcement officer’s account of the circumstances that prompted the officer’s use of force against a free citizen, with respect to the citizen’s claim that such force was excessive and violated the citizen’s right under the Federal Constitution’s Fourth Amendment to be secure against unreasonable seizures, a fact-finder may consider, along with other factors, evidence that the officer may have harbored ill-will toward the citizen against whom force was used; similarly, an officer’s objective good faith–that is, whether the officer could reasonably have believed that the force used did not violate the Fourth Amendment–may be relevant to the availability of the qualified immunity defense to monetary liability under 42 USCS 1983.
  
  

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Syllabus

Petitioner Graham, a diabetic, asked his friend, Berry, to drive him to a convenience store to purchase orange juice to counteract the onset of an insulin reaction. Upon entering the store and seeing the number of people ahead of him, Graham hurried out and asked Berry to drive him to a friend’s house instead. Respondent Connor, a city police officer, became suspicious after seeing Graham hastily enter and leave the store, followed Berry’s car, and made an investigative stop, ordering the pair to wait while he found out what had happened in the store. Respondent backup police officers arrived on the scene, handcuffed Graham, and ignored or rebuffed attempts to explain and treat Graham’s condition. During the encounter, Graham sustained multiple injuries. He was released when Connor learned that nothing had happened in the store. Graham filed suit in the District Court under 42 U. S. C. § 1983 against respondents, alleging that they had used excessive force in making the stop, in violation of “rights secured [****2]  to him under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and 42 U. S. C. § 1983.” The District Court granted respondents’ motion for a directed verdict at the close of Graham’s evidence, applying a four-factor test for determining when excessive use of force gives rise to a § 1983 cause of action, which inquires, inter alia, whether the force was applied in a good-faith effort to maintain and restore discipline or maliciously and sadistically for the very purpose of causing harm. Johnson v. Glick, 481 F. 2d 1028. The Court of Appeals affirmed, endorsing this test as generally applicable to all claims of constitutionally excessive force brought against government officials, rejecting Graham’s argument that it was error to require him to prove that the allegedly excessive force was applied maliciously and sadistically to cause harm, and holding that a reasonable jury applying the Johnson v. Glick test to his evidence could not find that the force applied was constitutionally excessive.

Held: All claims that law enforcement officials have used excessive force — deadly or not  [****3]  — in the course of an arrest, investigatory stop, or other “seizure” of a free citizen are properly analyzed under the Fourth Amendment’s “objective reasonableness” standard, rather than under a substantive due process standard. Pp. 392-399.

• (a) The notion that all excessive force claims brought under § 1983 are governed by a single generic standard is rejected. Instead, courts must identify the specific constitutional right allegedly infringed by the challenged application of force and then judge the claim by reference to the specific constitutional standard which governs that right. Pp. 393-394.
  
  
• (b) Claims that law enforcement officials have used excessive force in the course of an arrest, investigatory stop, or other “seizure” of a free citizen are most properly characterized as invoking the protections of the Fourth Amendment, which guarantees citizens the right “to be secure in their persons . . . against unreasonable seizures,” and must be judged by reference to the Fourth Amendment’s “reasonableness” standard. Pp. 394-395.
  
  
• (c) The Fourth Amendment “reasonableness” inquiry is whether the officers’ actions are “objectively reasonable” in light of the facts and circumstances [****4]  confronting them, without regard to their underlying intent or motivation. The “reasonableness” of a particular use of force must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, and its calculus must embody an allowance for the fact that police officers are often forced to make split-second decisions about the amount of force necessary in a particular situation. Pp. 396-397.
  
  
• (d) The Johnson v. Glick test applied by the courts below is incompatible with a proper Fourth Amendment analysis. The suggestion that the test’s “malicious and sadistic” inquiry is merely another way of describing conduct that is objectively unreasonable under the circumstances is rejected. Also rejected is the conclusion that because individual officers’ subjective motivations are of central importance in deciding whether force used against a convicted prisoner violates the Eighth Amendment, it cannot be reversible error to inquire into them in deciding whether force used against a suspect or arrestee violates the Fourth Amendment. The Eighth Amendment terms “cruel” and “punishments” clearly suggest some inquiry into subjective state of mind, whereas the Fourth Amendment term [****5]  “unreasonable” does not. Moreover, the less protective Eighth Amendment standard applies only after the State has complied with the constitutional guarantees traditionally associated with criminal prosecutions. Pp. 397-399.

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Lawyers on Case

Counsel:

H. Gerald Beaver argued the cause for petitioner. On the briefs was Richard B. Glazier.

Mark I. Levy argued the cause for respondents. On the brief was Frank B. Aycock III. *Link to the text of the note

Judges

Rehnquist, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which White, Stevens, O’Connor, Scalia, and Kennedy, JJ., joined. Blackmun, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and concurring in the judgment, in  [****6]  which Brennan and Marshall, JJ., joined, post, p. 399.

Opinion by: REHNQUIST

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Opinion

[*388]   [***450]   [**1867]  CHIEF JUSTICE REHNQUIST delivered the opinion of the Court.

This case requires us to decide what constitutional standard governs HN1 a free citizen’s claim that law enforcement officials used excessive force in the course of making an arrest, investigatory stop, or other “seizure” of his person. We hold that such claims are properly analyzed under the Fourth Amendment’s “objective reasonableness”  [**1868]  standard, rather than under a substantive due process standard.

In this action under 42 U. S. C. § 1983, petitioner Dethorne Graham seeks to recover damages for injuries allegedly sustained when law enforcement officers used physical force against him during the course of an investigatory stop. Because the case comes to us from a decision of the Court of Appeals affirming the entry of a directed verdict for respondents, we take the evidence hereafter noted in the light most favorable to petitioner. On November 12, 1984, Graham, a diabetic, felt the onset of an insulin reaction. He asked a friend, William Berry, to drive him to a nearby convenience [****7]  store so he could purchase some orange juice to counteract the reaction. Berry agreed, but when Graham entered the store, he saw a number of people ahead of him in the checkout  [*389]  line. Concerned about the delay, he hurried out of the store and asked Berry to drive him to a friend’s house instead.

Respondent Connor, an officer of the Charlotte, North Carolina, Police Department, saw Graham hastily enter and leave the store. The officer became suspicious that something was amiss and followed Berry’s car. About one-half mile from the store, he made an investigative stop. Although Berry told Connor that Graham was simply suffering from a “sugar reaction,” the officer ordered  [***451]  Berry and Graham to wait while he found out what, if anything, had happened at the convenience store. When Officer Connor returned to his patrol car to call for backup assistance, Graham got out of the car, ran around it twice, and finally sat down on the curb, where he passed out briefly.

In the ensuing confusion, a number of other Charlotte police officers arrived on the scene in response to Officer Connor’s request for backup. One of the officers rolled Graham over on the sidewalk and cuffed [****8]  his hands tightly behind his back, ignoring Berry’s pleas to get him some sugar. Another officer said: “I’ve seen a lot of people with sugar diabetes that never acted like this. Ain’t nothing wrong with the M. F. but drunk. Lock the S. B. up.” App. 42. Several officers then lifted Graham up from behind, carried him over to Berry’s car, and placed him face down on its hood. Regaining consciousness, Graham asked the officers to check in his wallet for a diabetic decal that he carried. In response, one of the officers told him to “shut up” and shoved his face down against the hood of the car. Four officers grabbed Graham and threw him headfirst into the police car. A friend of Graham’s brought some orange juice to the car, but the officers refused to let him have it. Finally, Officer Connor received a report that Graham had done nothing wrong at the convenience store, and the officers drove him home and released him.

[*390]  At some point during his encounter with the police, Graham sustained a broken foot, cuts on his wrists, a bruised forehead, and an injured shoulder; he also claims to have developed a loud ringing in his right ear that continues to this day. He commenced [****9]  this action under 42 U. S. C. § 1983 against the individual officers involved in the incident, all of whom are respondents here, 1Link to the text of the note alleging that they had used excessive force in making the investigatory stop, in violation of “rights secured to him under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and 42 U. S. C. § 1983.” Complaint para. 10, App. 5. 2Link to the text of the note The case was tried before a jury. At the close of petitioner’s evidence, respondents moved for a directed verdict. In ruling on that motion, the District Court considered the following  [**1869]  four factors, which it identified as “[t]he factors to be considered in determining when the excessive use of force gives rise to a cause of action under § 1983”: (1) the need for the application of force; (2) the relationship between that need and the amount of force that was used; (3) the extent of the injury inflicted; and (4) “[w]hether the force was applied in a good faith effort to maintain and restore discipline or maliciously and sadistically for the very purpose of causing harm.” 644 F. Supp. 246, 248 (WDNC 1986).  [****10]  Finding that the amount of force used by the officers was “appropriate under the circumstances,” that “[t]here was no discernable  [***452]  injury inflicted,” and that the force used “was not applied maliciously or sadistically for the very purpose of causing harm,” but in “a good faith effort to maintain or restore order in the face of a potentially explosive  [*391]  situation,” id., at 248-249, the District Court granted respondents’ motion for a directed verdict.

[****11]  A divided panel of the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed. 827 F. 2d 945 (1987). The majority ruled first that the District Court had applied the correct legal standard in assessing petitioner’s excessive force claim. Id., at 948-949. Without attempting to identify the specific constitutional provision under which that claim arose, 3Link to the text of the note the majority endorsed the four-factor test applied by the District Court as generally applicable to all claims of “constitutionally excessive force” brought against governmental officials. Id., at 948. The majority rejected petitioner’s argument, based on Circuit precedent, 4Link to the text of the note [****13]  that it was error to require him to prove that the allegedly excessive force used against him was applied “maliciously and sadistically for the very purpose of causing harm.” 5Link to the text of the note Ibid. Finally, the majority held that a reasonable jury applying the four-part test it had just endorsed  [*392]  to petitioner’s evidence “could not find that the force applied was constitutionally excessive.” Id., at 949-950. The dissenting judge argued that [****12]  this Court’s decisions in Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968), and Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1 (1985), required that excessive force claims arising out of investigatory stops be analyzed under the Fourth Amendment’s “objective reasonableness” standard. 827 F. 2d, at 950-952. We granted certiorari, 488 U.S. 816 (1988), and now reverse.

Fifteen years ago, in Johnson v. Glick, 481 F. 2d 1028, cert. denied, 414 U.S. 1033 (1973), the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit addressed [****14]  a § 1983 damages claim filed by a pretrial detainee who claimed that a guard had assaulted him without justification. In evaluating the detainee’s claim, Judge Friendly  [***453]  applied neither the Fourth  [**1870]  Amendment nor the Eighth, the two most textually obvious sources of constitutional protection against physically abusive governmental conduct. 6Link to the text of the note Instead, he looked to “substantive due process,” holding that “quite apart from any ‘specific’ of the Bill of Rights, application of undue force by  [*393]  law enforcement officers deprives a suspect of liberty without due process of law.” 481 F. 2d, at 1032. As support for this proposition, he relied upon our decision in Rochin v. California, 342 U.S. 165 (1952), which used the Due Process Clause to void a state criminal conviction based on evidence obtained by pumping the defendant’s stomach. 481 F. 2d, at 1032-1033. If a police officer’s use of force which “shocks the conscience” could justify setting aside a criminal conviction, Judge Friendly reasoned, a correctional officer’s use of similarly excessive force must give rise to [****15]  a due process violation actionable under § 1983. Ibid. Judge Friendly went on to set forth four factors to guide courts in determining “whether the constitutional line has been crossed” by a particular use of force — the same four factors relied upon by the courts below in this case. Id., at 1033.

[****16]  In the years following Johnson v. Glick, the vast majority of lower federal courts have applied its four-part “substantive due process” test indiscriminately to all excessive force claims lodged against law enforcement and prison officials under § 1983, without considering whether the particular application of force might implicate a more specific constitutional right governed by a different standard. 7Link to the text of the note Indeed, many courts have seemed to assume, as did the courts below in this case, that there is a generic “right” to be free from excessive force, grounded not in any particular constitutional provision but rather in “basic principles of § 1983 jurisprudence.” 8Link to the text of the note

[****17]  We reject this notion that all excessive force claims brought under § 1983 are governed by a single generic standard. As we have said many times, § 1983 “is not itself a  [*394]  source of substantive rights,” but  [***454]  merely provides “a method for vindicating federal rights elsewhere conferred.” Baker v. McCollan, 443 U.S. 137, 144, n. 3 (1979). In addressing an excessive force claim brought under § 1983, analysis begins by identifying the specific constitutional right allegedly infringed by the challenged application of force. See id., at 140 (“The first inquiry in any § 1983 suit” is “to isolate the precise constitutional violation with which [the defendant] is charged”). 9Link to the text of the note In most instances,  [**1871]  that will be either the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable seizures of the person, or the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishments, which are the two primary sources of constitutional protection against physically abusive governmental conduct. The validity of the claim must then be judged by reference to the specific constitutional standard which governs that right, rather [****18]  than to some generalized “excessive force” standard. See Tennessee v. Garner, supra, at 7-22 (claim of excessive force to effect arrest analyzed under a Fourth Amendment standard); Whitley v. Albers, 475 U.S. 312, 318-326 (1986) (claim of excessive force to subdue convicted prisoner analyzed under an Eighth Amendment standard).

Where, as here, the excessive force claim arises in the context of an arrest or investigatory stop of a free citizen, it is most properly characterized as one invoking the protections of the Fourth Amendment, which guarantees citizens the right “to be secure in their persons . . . against unreasonable . . . seizures” of the person. This much is clear from our decision in Tennessee v. Garner, supra. [****19]  In Garner, we addressed a claim that the use of deadly force to apprehend a fleeing suspect who did not appear to be armed or otherwise dangerous violated the suspect’s constitutional rights, notwithstanding the existence of probable cause to arrest.  [*395]  Though the complaint alleged violations of both the Fourth Amendment and the Due Process Clause, see 471 U.S., at 5, we analyzed the constitutionality of the challenged application of force solely by reference to the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable seizures of the person, holding that the “reasonableness” of a particular seizure depends not only on when it is made, but also on how it is carried out. Id., at 7-8. Today we make explicit what was implicit in Garner’s analysis, and hold that all claims that law enforcement officers have used excessive force — deadly or not — in the course of an arrest, investigatory stop, or other “seizure” of a free citizen should be analyzed under the Fourth Amendment and its “reasonableness” standard, rather than under a “substantive due process” approach. HN4 Because the Fourth Amendment provides [****20]  an explicit textual source of constitutional protection against this sort of physically intrusive governmental conduct, that Amendment, not the more generalized notion of “substantive due process,”  [***455]  must be the guide for analyzing these claims. 10Link to the text of the note

[****21]

[*396]   Determining whether the force used to effect a particular seizure is “reasonable” under the Fourth Amendment requires a careful balancing of “‘the nature and quality of the intrusion on the individual’s Fourth Amendment interests'” against the countervailing governmental interests at stake. Id., at 8, quoting United States v. Place, 462 U.S. 696, 703 (1983). Our Fourth Amendment jurisprudence  [**1872]  has long recognized that the right to make an arrest or investigatory stop necessarily carries with it the right to use some degree of physical coercion or threat thereof to effect it. See Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S., at 22-27. Because “[t]he test of reasonableness under the Fourth Amendment is not capable of precise definition or mechanical application,” Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520, 559 (1979), however, its proper application requires careful attention to the facts and circumstances of each particular case, including the severity of the crime at issue, whether the suspect poses an immediate threat to the safety of the officers or others, and whether he is actively [****22]  resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrest by flight. See Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S., at 8-9 (the question is “whether the totality of the circumstances justifie[s] a particular sort of . . . seizure”).

The “reasonableness” of a particular use of force must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, rather than with the 20/20 vision of hindsight. See Terry v. Ohio, supra, at 20-22. The Fourth Amendment is not violated by an arrest based on probable cause, even though the wrong person is arrested, Hill v. California, 401 U.S. 797 (1971), nor by the mistaken execution of a valid search warrant on the wrong premises, Maryland v. Garrison, 480 U.S. 79 (1987). With respect to a claim of excessive force, the same standard of reasonableness at the moment applies: “Not every push or shove, even if it may later seem unnecessary in the peace of a judge’s chambers,” Johnson v. Glick, 481 F. 2d, at 1033, violates the Fourth Amendment. The calculus of reasonableness  [***456]  must embody [****23]   [*397]  allowance for the fact that police officers are often forced to make split-second judgments — in circumstances that are tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving — about the amount of force that is necessary in a particular situation.

As in other Fourth Amendment contexts, however, the “reasonableness” inquiry in an excessive force case is an objective one: the question is whether the officers’ actions are “objectively reasonable” in light of the facts and circumstances confronting them, without regard to their underlying intent or motivation. See Scott v. United States, 436 U.S. 128, 137-139 (1978); see also Terry v. Ohio, supra, at 21 (in analyzing the reasonableness of a particular search or seizure, “it is imperative that the facts be judged against an objective standard”). An officer’s evil intentions will not make a Fourth Amendment violation out of an objectively reasonable use of force; nor will an officer’s good intentions make an objectively unreasonable use of force constitutional. See Scott v. United States, supra, at 138, citing United States v. Robinson, 414 U.S. 218 (1973).

Because petitioner’s excessive force claim is one arising under the Fourth Amendment, the Court of Appeals erred in analyzing it under the four-part Johnson v. Glick test. That test, which requires consideration of whether the individual officers acted in “good faith” or “maliciously and sadistically for the very purpose of causing harm,” is incompatible with a proper Fourth Amendment analysis. We do not agree with the Court of Appeals’ suggestion, see 827 F. 2d, at 948, that the “malicious and sadistic” inquiry is merely another way of describing conduct that is objectively unreasonable under the circumstances. Whatever the empirical correlations between “malicious and sadistic” behavior and objective unreasonableness may be, the fact remains that the “malicious and sadistic” factor puts in issue the subjective motivations of the individual officers, which our prior cases make clear has no bearing on whether a particular seizure is “unreasonable” under the Fourth  [**1873]  Amendment. Nor do we agree with the  [*398]  Court of Appeals’ conclusion, see id., at 948, n. 3, that because the subjective motivations  [****25]  of the individual officers are of central importance in deciding whether force used against a convicted prisoner violates the Eighth Amendment, see Whitley v. Albers, 475 U.S., at 320-321, 11Link to the text of the note it cannot be reversible error  [***457]  to inquire into them in deciding whether force used against a suspect or arrestee violates the Fourth Amendment. Differing standards under the Fourth and Eighth Amendments are hardly surprising: the terms “cruel” and “punishments” clearly suggest some inquiry into subjective state of mind, whereas the term “unreasonable” does not. Moreover, the less protective Eighth Amendment standard applies “only after the State has complied with the constitutional guarantees traditionally associated with criminal prosecutions.” Ingraham v. Wright, 430 U.S. 651, 671,  [*399]  n. 40 (1977). The Fourth Amendment inquiry is one of “objective reasonableness” under the circumstances, and subjective concepts like “malice” and “sadism” have no proper place in that inquiry. 12Link to the text of the note

[****26]

Because the Court of Appeals reviewed the District Court’s ruling on the motion for directed verdict under an erroneous view of the governing substantive law, its judgment must be vacated and the case remanded to that court for [****27]  reconsideration of that issue under the proper Fourth Amendment standard.

It is so ordered.

Concur by: BLACKMUN (In Part)

Concur

JUSTICE BLACKMUN, with whom JUSTICE BRENNAN and JUSTICE MARSHALL join, concurring in part and concurring in the judgment.

I join the Court’s opinion insofar as it rules that the Fourth Amendment is the primary tool for analyzing claims of excessive force in the prearrest context, and I concur in the judgment remanding the case to the Court of Appeals for reconsideration of the evidence under a reasonableness standard. In light of respondents’ concession,  [**1874]  however, that the pleadings in this case properly may be construed as raising a Fourth Amendment claim, see Brief for Respondents 3, I see no reason for the Court to find it necessary further to reach out to decide that prearrest excessive force claims are to be analyzed  [***458]  under the Fourth Amendment rather than under a  [*400]  substantive due process standard. I also see no basis for the Court’s suggestion, ante, at 395, that our decision in Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1 (1985), implicitly so held. Nowhere in Garner is a substantive due process standard [****28]  for evaluating the use of excessive force in a particular case discussed; there is no suggestion that such a standard was offered as an alternative and rejected.

In this case, petitioner apparently decided that it was in his best interest to disavow the continued applicability of substantive due process analysis as an alternative basis for recovery in prearrest excessive force cases. See Brief for Petitioner 20. His choice was certainly wise as a matter of litigation strategy in his own case, but does not (indeed, cannot be expected to) serve other potential plaintiffs equally well. It is for that reason that the Court would have done better to leave that question for another day. I expect that the use of force that is not demonstrably unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment only rarely will raise substantive due process concerns. But until I am faced with a case in which that question is squarely raised, and its merits are subjected to adversary presentation, I do not join in foreclosing the use of substantive due process analysis in prearrest cases.