On Friday, July 18, 2025, the Sixth Circuit issued a ruling reversing a trial court’s dismissal of our client Matthew Warman’s Fourth Amendment unlawful seizure claim against Mount St. Joseph University and its individual police officers. Attorney Matthew S. Okiishi has served as local and co-counsel to Ron Berutti of Murray-Nolan Berutti LLC (licensed in New York, New Jersey, and Kentucky) in this matter.
Mr. Warman ‘s lawsuit alleges that, while a student at MSJU, he was invited the campus police station to discuss his refusal to take the Covid-19 vaccine on religious and medical grounds. This “meeting” quickly turned sour. Over the course of an hour, Mr. Warman was taken to a back room and told, among other things, that he was not free to leave, that he was an “[expletive] idiot,” “should get a new religion,” that his “beliefs were wrong,” and should “grow the [expletive] up and get the shot.”
Based on these facts, the Court of Appeals held that this conduct plausibly established a violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. The Court further held that MSJU and the individual officers involved could be subject to liability as “state actors” under 29 U.S.C. §1983, and that the university and officers were not entitled to qualified immunity at this stage of the proceedings. The Court further cast doubt on whether privately employed campus police officers can avail themselves of qualified immunity. The matter has been remanded to the trial court for continued litigation.
A copy of the decision in the case styled Warman v. Mount St. Joseph Univ., et al., is linked here. The opinion has been recommended for full publication, signifying its importance and significance.
