The U.S. Supreme Court on April 20, 2026, granted a petition from Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officers and sent the death case of Roy Anthony Scott back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to reconsider in light of the court’s March 23 decision in Zorn v. Linton.
The U.S. Supreme Court has instructed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to take another look at a civil rights lawsuit arising from the death of Roy Anthony Scott after an encounter with Las Vegas police.
In an order dated April 20, 2026, the justices granted the petition filed by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officers Kyle Smith and Theodore Huntsman, vacated the Ninth Circuit’s judgment, and remanded the case for further consideration in light of the Supreme Court’s recent qualified-immunity decision, Zorn v. Linton. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson indicated they would have denied the petition.
The underlying case stems from an early-morning 911 call on March 3, 2019. According to the Ninth Circuit’s published opinion, Scott—who dispatch noted was mentally ill—called to report multiple assailants outside his apartment. When officers arrived, the court said, Scott was distressed and hallucinating. The opinion describes Scott telling officers he had paranoid schizophrenia and asking to be placed in a patrol car.
The Ninth Circuit recounted that after the officers physically engaged Scott and brought him to the ground, they held his arms while he lay on his back for more than two minutes before rolling him onto his stomach. With Scott facedown and his hands restrained behind his back, the court said Huntsman put body weight on Scott’s back and neck for about one to two minutes while Smith restrained Scott’s lower body. Scott later became unresponsive; he was pronounced dead after paramedics removed him from the scene. The Ninth Circuit noted that the plaintiffs’ expert concluded Scott died from restraint asphyxia.
Scott’s daughter, Rochelle Scott, and another estate representative, Fredrick Waid, sued the officers and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging, among other claims, that the officers used excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment.
In its July 30, 2024 decision, the Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court ruling that denied qualified immunity to Smith and Huntsman on the Fourth Amendment excessive-force claim, while granting qualified immunity on a separate Fourteenth Amendment familial-association claim.
The Supreme Court did not decide the merits of the Scott dispute in its April 20 order. Instead, it directed the Ninth Circuit to reconsider the case in light of Zorn v. Linton, a March 23, 2026 per curiam decision in which the court reversed the Second Circuit and held that a Vermont police sergeant was entitled to qualified immunity over the use of a rear wristlock on a protester during a sit-in at the state capitol.
The Ninth Circuit will now revisit the Scott case under the Supreme Court’s guidance on how clearly established law must be identified for qualified-immunity purposes.
