Cty. of Los Angeles v. Mendez

Decided May 30, 2017. Samuel A. Alito Jr. delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 16-369 · 581 U.S. 420 (2017) · Cited 398 times

Holding

The Fourth Amendment provides no basis for the Ninth Circuit's “provocation rule.”

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 8–0.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Graham v. Connor · 490 U.S. 386 (1989)
• Tennessee v. Garner · 471 U.S. 1 (1985)
• Heck v. Humphrey · 512 U.S. 477 (1994)
• Whren v. United States · 517 U.S. 806 (1996)
• United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co. · 200 U.S. 321 (1906)
• Memphis Community School District v. Stachura · 477 U.S. 299 (1986)
• Birchfield v. N. Dakota. William Robert Bernard · 579 U.S. 438 (2016)
• City and County of San Francisco v. Sheehan · 575 U.S. 600 (2015)
• Bank of Am. Corp. v. City of Miami · 581 U.S. 189 (2017)
• McLane Co. v. Equal Emp't Opportunity Comm'n · 581 U.S. 72 (2017)
• McLane Co. v. EEOC · 581 U.S. 72 (2017)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Barnes v. Felix · 605 U.S. 73 (2025)
• Herrera v. Wyoming · 587 U.S. 329 (2019)

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Samuel A. Alito Jr.’s profile · All Supreme Court opinions · The Supreme Court

Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (2017). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).