⚖ Oral Arguments, with Context

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit hears argument in Johnson v. Tarrant County. Anthony Johnson Junior died in the Tarrant County jail in Fort Worth, Texas, in twenty twenty-four, the day after he was booked in. The Tarrant County medical examiner ruled the death a homicide caused by asphyxia. Jail video released by the county shows officers pepper spraying him in the face while he was held face down, and an officer kneeling on his back for more than a minute while he said he could not breathe. Almost everything else you will hear about that day comes from the two sides' court filings, not from any finding by a court. His family's complaint alleges that officers also sprayed pepper spray directly into his mouth, and his family says he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and was without his medication when he was booked in. His family sued the county and a group of individual jail officers under Section 1983, alleging deliberate indifference to his serious medical needs and excessive force. One thing to keep straight from the start. The officers alleged to have used the force are not part of this appeal. Counsel on both sides told the panel that the officer alleged to have knelt on Mr. Johnson's back, and his supervising lieutenant, were fired and then indicted. The county's own lawyer told the court they are now charged with murder. They have not been tried, and the claims against them are on hold in the district court while the criminal case runs. Two other officers, alleged to have used the pepper spray, are also defendants in the lawsuit but are not before the Fifth Circuit today. The individual officers whose liability is on this appeal are alleged only to have been present afterward, and to have failed to get Mr. Johnson medical care. The core legal issue on appeal is whether the plaintiffs' complaint stated a plausible claim for municipal liability against Tarrant County under a theory of de facto policy, pattern and practice, or ratification, and whether they adequately alleged individual officer liability. The district court dismissed the claims against Tarrant County and several of the individual officers for failure to state a claim, and refused to let the plaintiffs try again with a new complaint. Those rulings are what is on appeal. The lawsuit itself is still pending in the district court against the officers who were not dismissed. A second question for the panel is whether the district judge abused his discretion in refusing to allow a new complaint. The family points to about sixty deaths in the Tarrant County jail since twenty seventeen, though the complaint itself rests on roughly two dozen of them, drawn from an earlier lawsuit against the county. The county answers that those earlier deaths were medical cases, not restraint cases like this one, and so cannot show a pattern. The county argues the tragedy was caused by individual error, not county policy, and that the plaintiffs' allegations are too conclusory and collective to survive dismissal. One last thing about the format. Seven lawyers argue in this case. The presiding judge opens by saying that in nearly twenty years on the court he has never seen an argument with this many advocates, and several of them get about a minute each.

Johnson v. Tarrant County (No. 25-10540) — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, argued August 4, 2026.