No Clearly-Established Eighth Amendment Right to Adequate Suicide Prevention Protocols for Inmates

In Taylor v. Barkes, published June 1, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed, per curiam, a decision by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals that correctional officials and employees were not entitled to qualified immunity to a lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. section 1983 alleging that the officials and employees violated a prisoner's 8th Amendment rights by not adequately screening him for risk of suicide, allegedly leading to the inmate's in-custody suicide.  The Supreme Court held that at the time of the suicide, 2004, there was no clearly-established right under the 8th Amendment to the proper implementation of adequate suicide prevention protocols.  No Supreme Court decision establishes such a right.  The weight of the authority at the time suggested that such a right did not exist.  The Third Circuit relied on two of its own decisions.  The Supreme Court determined that not even those decisions clearly established the right.  No precedent on the books would have made clear to the defendants that they were overseeing a system that violated the Constitution.  They were therefore entitled to qualified immunity.