Thank you, gentlemen. The case is submitted. We'll hear arguments next in the city of Los Angeles against Lyons.

Hey everyone, this is Leon Nefak from Fiasco in Slowburn. On today's episode of 5-4, Peter,

Riannan, and Michael are talking about LAV Lyons, a 1983 case about the use of chokeholds by police.

And whether a person who has been subjected to one can sue to have the tactic barred altogether.

The court rejected the case on the basis of standing. One reason, chokeholds continued to be used today.

And what you're watching here is Officer Daniel Pantaleo putting Ghana in a chokehold and with other officers on him,

wrestling to him to the ground. Ghana died later that day as the medical examiner ruled his death homicide.

This is 5-4, a podcast about how much the Supreme Court sucks.

Welcome to 5-4, where we dissect and analyze the Supreme Court cases that have cut off America's circulation like Raynaut's disease.

I am Peter. I'm here with Michael. Hey everybody.

And Riannan. Hi everyone.

Today's case is City of Los Angeles V Lyons. This is another case about cops.

In addition to our long catalog of cop episodes. And specifically it is about their use of chokeholds.

It's also about the court evading its responsibility to curtail police violence by denying injunctive or forward looking relief in cases where the police are using tactics that will unjustly hurt people, most likely poor people and people of color in the future.

And it's about a standard that the court invents in this case that makes it incredibly difficult to get forward looking remedies in general.

In other words, the standard makes it extremely difficult to get courts to tell someone in this case the police to stop doing something that will almost certainly harm someone in the future.

Right.

Chokeholds, of course, one of the many mostly non-lethal methods cops have at their disposal to subdue criminal suspects and or their own wives.

And in this case, a guy gets put into a brutal and excessive chokehold by the LAPD after which he sues.

And in his lawsuit, he requests that the practice of chokeholds be halted moving forward.

But the court in a five to four decision says, no, we can't stop them from using chokeholds in the future because even though they already put you into a chokehold once, you can't prove that they'll do it again.

The year is 1982. So William Renquist is on the court, but he's not yet the chief justice.

...