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UT: No collateral estoppel from federal Fourth Amendment claim where state constitution interpreted more broadly

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Since Utah's search and seizure provision is not interpreted as narrowly as the Fourth Amendment, a federal claim over the same act is not collateral estoppel to a state constitutional claim. Jensen v. Cunningham, 2011 UT 17, 2011 Utah LEXIS 32 (March 29, 2011): [*P49] Without an analysis of the independent protections afforded by our state constitution, the state district court dismissed the Jensens' state law claims because a federal court found that the undisputed material facts did not give rise to a federal constitutional violation. This was error. Because the state and federal standards for determining whether a plaintiff is entitled to damages for a constitutional violation are different, a federal court determination that the material undisputed facts do not give rise to a federal constitutional violation does not preclude a state court from deciding whether those same facts will give rise to a state constitutional violation...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on April 01, 2011 (boomark / email).