Justices Likely to Back Woman Whose Son Was Killed by Police (1)

The US Supreme Court appeared likely to revive a woman’s claim that a Texas police officer acted unreasonably when he shot and killed her son during a routine traffic stop.

At arguments on Wednesday, the justices seemed to agree that the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit applied the wrong test in assessing whether the officer’s use of deadly force was justified.

The appeals court used the moment of the threat doctrine, which looks only at police actions when their safety was threatened, instead of the totality of the circumstances. The latter approach requires courts to consider other ...