Some Sixth Circuit Discussions of Brady Issues in Qualified-Immunity Appeals
In two appeals—Clark v. Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government and Salter v. City of Detroit, the Sixth Circuit spoke at length about its jurisdiction to review certain Brady issues as part of qualified-immunity appeals. The cases produced a total of six opinions, several of which dove into this jurisdictional issue.
As a little background, the Supreme Court held in Johnson v. Jones that courts of appeals lack jurisdiction to review “factual” issues—namely, the district court’s determination of what facts a reasonable jury could find—as part of qualified-immunity appeals. The Sixth Circuit has held that two parts of the Brady analysis—the favorability and materiality of withheld evidence—fall on the fact side of the law-fact divide. So the court will not review a district court’s materiality of favorability assessments as part of a qualified-immunity appeal.
Judge Murphy wrote separately in Clark to question the Sixth Circuit’s caselaw on this point. He saw the materiality element as the application of law to fact, an issue over which the court likely had jurisdiction. Judge Nalbandian concurred in Salter to echo Judge Murphy’s points. And Judge Stranch wrote separately in Clark, agreeing with Judge Murphy that some tension exists in the Sixth Circuit’s caselaw on this matter. But she thought that the gap between fact and law on materiality was narrow, as the court of appeals would still have to take the district court’s inferences as given.
Given these several views on appellate jurisdiction over Brady issues, I won’t be surprised to see an en banc poll in one of these cases.
Clark v. Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government, 2025 WL 732838 (6th Cir. Mar. 7, 2025), available at the Sixth Circuit and Westlaw
Salter v. City of Detroit, 2025 WL 880238 (6th Cir. Mar. 21, 2025), available at the Sixth Circuit and Westlaw
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