Willie Burton, Jr. v. A. Livingston

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that allegations that a prison guard retaliated against a prisoner by terrorizing him with threats of death, if proved, would constitute a violation of the prisoner’s First Amendment rights
• finding that a prisoner stated a valid claim against a prison guard under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment
• finding that drawing gun and terrorizing prisoner with threats of death while using racially offensive language states First Amendment, due process, and equal protection claims
• finding that threat, combined with conduct, shocked the conscience where prison officer cocked trigger and aimed gun at prisoner while instructing him to run so he could justify shooting him
• noting that mere words, without more, do not invade a federally protected right
• finding that a prisoner had stated a substantive due process claim when he alleged that a prison guard drew and pointed a loaded pistol at him and ordered him to run so that the guard would be justified in shooting him

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).