⚖ Oral Arguments, with Context

The D.C. Circuit hears Michael Leach versus the District of Columbia. Police responding to a reported shooting encountered Leach standing in an apartment doorway with a gun. One officer shot him five times. After he fell, other officers moved in to retrieve the gun and handcuff him; another officer repeatedly struck him in the face. Leach brought a civil excessive-force case against the District and the officers. The district court rejected his claims on summary judgment. Leach will ask for the case to go back for further proceedings, arguing that the judge wrongly resolved important factual disputes against him. The District and the officers will argue that the force was reasonable and that Leach has not shown a violation of clearly established law. Qualified immunity adds a separate requirement: existing law at the time must have clearly established that the particular conduct was unlawful. The appeal concerns both the shooting and the later blows, and what the body-camera evidence permits a judge to decide without a jury.

Michael Leach v. District of Columbia (No. 26-7004) — U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, argued November 13, 2026.