"Huff then filed a lawsuit, which has since turned up all sorts of interesting information, including the fact that [Officer] Reichert sometimes wiped marijuana on cars parked at local businesses as a form of training for his dog — without consent from the cars’ owners. The biggest barrier to lawsuits against police officers is the doctrine of qualified immunity. It isn’t enough to show that a cop violated your rights. To even get in front of a jury, you must also show that the rights the officer violated were “well established” at the time of the incident. The tactics Reichert used in Huff’s case are fairly common, so Huff surviving qualified immunity was far from a sure thing.
But this week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit rejected Reichert’s qualified immunity claim and will allow Huff’s suit to go forward. The decision is a thorough rebuke of Reichert and an unmitigated victory for Huff — the court ruled in his favor on every claim. Huff will now need to persuade a jury to rule against Reichert. "
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