Taylor v. Riojas

{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2023}}

{{Infobox SCOTUS case

| Litigants = Taylor v. Riojas

| ArgueDate =

| ArgueYear =

| DecideDate = November 2

| DecideYear = 2020

| FullName = Trent Michael Taylor v. Robert Riojas, et al.

| USVol = 592

| USPage = 7

| ParallelCitations =

| Docket = 19-1261

| OralArgument =

| Prior =

| Subsequent =

| Holding =

| PerCuriam = yes

| Majority =

| Concurrence = Alito

| Dissent = Thomas

| JoinDissent =

| NotParticipating = Justice Barrett

| LawsApplied =

}}

Taylor v. Riojas, 592 U.S. 7 (2020), was a United States Supreme Court case dealing with qualified immunity. It was the first case in which the Supreme Court relied on the obviousness of a constitutional violation to overturn a lower court's decision to grant qualified immunity.Qualified Immunity—Obviousness Standard—Taylor v. Riojas, 135 Harv. L. Rev. 421, 428-30 (2021).

Trent Taylor was an inmate in a Texas prison. He filed a pro se lawsuitHon. Carlton Reeves, How in the World Could They Reach That Conclusion?, 126 Dick. L. Rev. 827, 829 (2022). alleging that he was confined for six days "in a pair of shockingly unsanitary cells." The District Court found no constitutional violation and granted summary judgment.Qualified Immunity—Obviousness Standard—Taylor v. Riojas, 135 Harv. L. Rev. 421, 422 (2021). The Fifth Circuit found that Taylor's rights were violated, but concluded that summary judgment was still appropriate because the defendants "weren’t on 'fair warning' that their specific acts were unconstitutional."Zamir Ben-Dan, Taylor v. Riojas: Anatomy of a Supreme Court Intervention that Should Not Have Been Necessary, 5 Nev. L.J. Forum 23, 28 (2021). The Supreme Court summarily reversed in a per curiam decision. Justice Alito concurred in the judgment, because he agreed with the Court's decision on the merits, but disagreed with the Court's decision to review the case in the first place.{{cite web |url=https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/12/20/23517050/supreme-court-fifth-circuit-habeas-corpus-criminal-justice-andy-oldham-crawford-cain |title=America's Trumpiest court doesn't care if your right to a fair trial was violated |website=vox.com |date=December 20, 2022}} Justice Thomas dissented without providing a written opinion.