In the United States Court of Appeals For the Second Circuit

August Term, 2022 Argued: October 28, 2022 Decided: August 12, 2024

Docket No. 21-2047

BASEL M. SOUKANEH,

Plaintiff-Appellee,

—v.—

NICHOLAS ANDRZEJEWSKI,

Defendant-Appellant.*

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut No. 19-cv-1147, Janet Bond Arterton, Judge.

Before: LYNCH, LEE, AND ROBINSON, Circuit Judges.

Defendant-Appellant Nicholas Andrzejewski, an officer of the Waterbury, Connecticut police department, appeals from the judgment of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut (Arterton, J.) denying in part his * The Clerk of Court is respectfully directed to amend the official case caption accordingly. motion for summary judgment on the grounds that his purported conduct was not shielded by qualified immunity. That conduct, as alleged by Plaintiff-Appellee Basel Soukaneh, is that in the course of a routine traffic stop, Andrzejewski unlawfully and violently handcuffed and detained Soukaneh in the back of a police vehicle for over half an hour and conducted a warrantless search of Soukaneh’s vehicle after Soukaneh presented a facially valid firearms permit and disclosed that he possessed a firearm pursuant to the permit. On appeal, Andrzejewski argues we should reverse the district court’s denial of qualified immunity because the presence of the lawfully owned firearm in the vehicle gave him the requisite probable cause to detain Soukaneh, search the interior of his car, and search his trunk.

Drawing all permissible factual inferences in Soukaneh’s favor, as we must on summary judgment, we agree with the district court. The evidence supports the conclusion that Andrzejewski violated Soukaneh’s Fourth Amendment rights to be free from unreasonable search and seizure when he detained Soukaneh in the manner, and for the length of time, that he did, and when he conducted the warrantless searches of Soukaneh’s car and trunk. Andrzejewski is not entitled to qualified immunity for this alleged conduct and, accordingly, the district court properly denied his motion for summary judgment.

We therefore AFFIRM the judgment of the district court and REMAND the case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

JOSEPH A. MENGACCI (Daniel J. Foster, on the brief), Office of the Corporation Counsel, Waterbury, CT, for Defendant-Appellant.

John R. Williams, New Haven, CT, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

Michael T. Jean, Hadan W. Hatch, for Amicus Curiae National Rifle Association of America, Inc., in support of Plaintiff-Appellee.

2 EUNICE C. LEE, Circuit Judge:

Defendant-Appellant Nicholas Andrzejewski, an officer of the Waterbury, Connecticut police department, appeals from the judgment of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut (Arterton, J.) denying in part his motion for summary judgment on the grounds that his purported conduct was not shielded by qualified immunity. The evidence, taken in the light most favorable to Plaintiff-Appellee Basel Soukaneh, would permit a reasonable jury to find that in th