SWAT Team Property Damages Get Support From Fifth Circuit Judges

A Fifth Circuit panel signaled support for state law damages awarded to a Texas woman whose home was destroyed by a SWAT team seeking a fugitive.

Vicki Baker won nearly $60,000 in damages last year, after Chief US District Judge Amos Mazzant of the Eastern District of Texas found that the city of McKinney—the Dallas suburb where Baker lived—violated the Texas Takings Clause.

Ed Voss, a lawyer with Brown & Hofmeister representing the city, said Monday at argument that the case belongs in state court after the federal counts were dismissed. The US Supreme Court in 2024 declined to take ...