WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court seemed likely Tuesday to rule narrowly in favor of a family trying to hold federal law enforcement accountable in court after an FBI raid wrongly targeted their Atlanta home.
The justices seemed open to giving them another chance to sue over the raid, but wary of handing down a more sweeping ruling on federal liability in law enforcement cases.
The case was filed after FBI agents broke down Trina Martin’s door before dawn in 2017. They pointed guns at Martin and her then-boyfriend and terrified her 7-year-old son before realizing they were in the wrong place.
Toi Cliatt talks about the raid in the master bathroom closet he and then-girlfriend Trina Martin hid in after the FBI broke into their home, in Atlanta on Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Sudhin Thanawala)
The FBI team quickly apologized and left, with the leader later saying that his personal GPS device had led him to the wrong place.
AP AUDIO: Supreme Court seems likely to rule narrowly for family whose house was wrongly raided by FBI
AP correspondent Ed Donahue reports on the case of a botched FBI raid that went before the Supreme Court.
The government says judges shouldn’t be second-guessing decisions made in the absence of a specific policy and Martin can’t sue over an honest mistake. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, tossing out the lawsuit in 2022.
Trina Martin, left, and Toi Cliatt sit for a portrait inside the home the FBI mistakenly raided in 2017, in Atlanta on Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Sudhin Thanawala)
Both liberal and conservative justices appeared skeptical of the government’s position, with Justice Neil Gorsuch asking incredulously, “No policy says, ‘Don’t break down the door of the wrong house? Don’t traumatize its occupants?’”
Still, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was among those who suggested there could be some situations where law enforcement decisions should be shielded from liability, though “perhaps not here.”
The justices seemed to be leaning toward tossing out part of the 11th Circuit’s decision and sending it back for more litigation. A decision is expected around the end of June.
Toi Cliatt talks about the raid in the bedroom where he and then-girlfriend Trina Martin were sleeping when the FBI broke into their home, in Atlanta on Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Sudhin Thanawala)
Public interest groups from across the political spectrum have urged the court to overturn the ruling, saying it differs from other courts around the country and its reasoning would severely narrow the legal path for people to try and hold federal law enforcement accountable in court.
