In the

United States Court of Appeals

For the Seventh Circuit
____________________
No. 24-2448
AMY HADLEY,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.

CITY OF SOUTH BEND, INDIANA, et al.,

Defendants-Appellees.
____________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the

Northern District of Indiana, South Bend Division.
No. 3:24-cv-00029 — Damon R. Leichty, Judge.
____________________

ARGUED FEBRUARY 26, 2025 — DECIDED OCTOBER 7, 2025

____________________

Before ROVNER, SCUDDER, and KOLAR, Circuit Judges.

KOLAR, Circuit Judge. Amy Hadley’s home was badly dam-
aged when local law enforcement executed a search warrant
looking for a fugitive they incorrectly believed was inside her
home. When both the City of South Bend and St. Joseph
County declined to pay for the $16,000 in resulting damages,
Hadley sued for compensation under the Takings Clause of
the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The district
court dismissed her complaint, concluding that she failed to
2 No. 24-2448

state a claim, a decision she now appeals. Because Hadley’s

arguments for compensation run contrary to our precedent,
we affirm.

I. Background

The district court dismissed this case at the pleadings

stage, so we accept the following well-pled allegations as true
on appeal. Emerson v. Dart, 109 F.4th 936, 941 (7th Cir. 2024).
Amy Hadley lives in South Bend, Indiana with her two
children. In June 2022, local law enforcement believed a mur-
der suspect, John Parnell Thomas, had (based on his IP ad-
dress) accessed his Facebook account from within Hadley’s
home. Officers spent the evening surveilling Hadley’s house
from afar but saw no sign of Thomas. The following day,
however, someone again accessed the same Facebook account
from the same IP address. Based on this information, officers
obtained a lawful warrant to search Hadley’s home for
Thomas.
Warrant in hand, more law enforcement gathered outside
the home to execute it. Before entering, they demanded
Thomas exit, shouting their commands from outside using a
bullhorn. Hadley’s fifteen-year-old son—the only person in
the home—surrendered. Hadley arrived at the scene before
officers entered her home. She professed to have no connec-
tion with, or knowledge of, Thomas.
Officers were undeterred. Believing Thomas was in the
home and refusing to leave, they entered the house forcefully.
They broke windows and launched thirty cannisters of tear
gas into the home. The gas destroyed all “porous” items in the
house, like clothing and beds (Hadley had to sleep in her car
No. 24-2448 3

for days until toxic fumes from the gas dissipated). Police also
wrecked internal security cameras, punched holes in the
walls, ransacked furniture and a closet, and tore down a panel
on a wall and a fan in a bathroom.
After the government refused to compensate Hadley for
her damages, she sued defendants under 42 U.S.C. §1983 for
$16,000. Relevant here, she argued the state officials violated
her Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment rights by taking her
property (destroying it) “for public use” (while searching for
a fugitive) and thus owed her “just compensation.” See U.S.
CONST. amends. V, XIV. Hadley did not challenge the warrant
police obtained to search her home, nor did she assert that po-
lice executed the warrant “unreasonabl[y]” in violation of the
Fourth Amendment. Id. amend. IV.
Though Hadley filed suit in Indiana state court, St. Joseph
County removed the action to the federal district court in
South Bend. After removal, defendants City of South Bend,
the South Bend Police Department, St. Joseph County, the St.
Joseph Police Department, and the St. Joseph Board of Com-
missioners moved to dismiss. They principally argued that
Johnson v. Manitowoc County, 635 F.3d 331 (7th Cir. 2011), fore-
closes Hadley’s claim. The district court agreed and dismissed
her complaint. Hadley appealed.

II. Analysis

Hadley sues via 42 U.S.C. §1983, a procedural vehicle for

a plaintiff to seek damages from state officials who violate her
constitutional rights. Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 393–94
(1989). To state a claim under §1983, Hadley must show
(among other things) that she was “deprived of a right
4 No. 24-2448

secured by the Constitution or federal law.” Thurman v. Vill.

of Homewood, 446 F.3d 682, 687 (7th Cir. 2006).
Hadley asserts her Fifth Amendment right to just compen-
sation under the Takings Clause, applicable to the states
through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amend-
ment. The Takings Clause provides: “nor shall private prop-
erty be taken for public use, without just compensation.” U.S.
CONST. amend. V. Whether Hadley’s §1983 claim survives
dismissal turns on whether the Fifth Amendment does in fact
entitle her to compensation for the property damage police
caused while executing a valid warrant.
The district court, relying on Johnson, concluded the Fifth
Amendment does not entitle her to compensation and dis-
missed the complaint. Hadley appeals, urging us to overrule
Johnson and hold that: “innocent homeowner[s] with no con-
nection to the sought-after suspect[,] whose property the
[government] intentionally and severely damage[s] through a
military-style assault … to execute a warrant to apprehend [a]
suspect … when the property otherwise would not have been
damaged” deserve compensation under the Fifth Amend-
ment. Defendants, for their part, urge the opposite. They ask
us to preserve and apply Johnson here to reject Hadley’s claim.
Because we agree that Johnson controls, we affirm. Under
Johnson, the Fifth Amendment does not require the state to
compensate for property damage resulting from police exe-
cuting a lawful search warrant. That is precisely what hap-
pened here: the damage Hadley suffered happened because
police executed a lawful search warrant in her home. Hadley
cannot escape Johnson’s application in this case by arguing
there is some other set of facts that should compel us to revisit
Johnson. We may face difficult questions regarding the
No. 24-2448 5

application of the Takings Clause in future cases. That does

nothing to change the fact that Johnson’s application to dam-
age caused when local officials execute a valid search warrant
is both clear and controlling. Thus, we affirm the district
court’s order dismissing Hadley’s complaint.
We proceed in three steps. First, we explain that Johnson
controls and requires us to affirm. Second, we explain Had-
ley’s contrary arguments and conclude that they do not cast
doubt that Johnson controls here. Third, we briefly explain
that—even setting Johnson aside—we have serious doubts
about Hadley’s proposed holding.
A. Johnson, which addressed facts nearly identical to
Hadley’s, controls and requires us to affirm.
This Court decided Johnson in 2011. There, the plaintiff
(Johnson), like Hadley, suffered significant property damage
while police executed a valid warrant.
Johnson owned a trailer and garage on a rural lot in Wis-
consin. Johnson, 635 F.3d at 332. He rented the property to an
individual suspected of murder. Id. The police obtained a
warrant and searched the trailer for evidence. Id. at 333. While
executing the warrant, police inflicted extensive damage. Id.
at 333–34. In the trailer, they damaged the main door, re-
moved wall panels in the bedroom, ripped up carpet in the
hallway and bedroom, and cut swatches from a couch. Id. In
the garage, police searched for blood that might have seeped
into cracks in the concrete floor by jackhammering an eight-
by-two-foot section of it. Id. at 333.
Johnson sued for damages, bringing two claims. First,
though he did not challenge the warrant’s lawfulness, he ar-
gued police acted unreasonably when executing the warrant
6 No. 24-2448

in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Id. at 334–36. Johnson

also brought a claim under the Fifth Amendment, urging that
police owed him just compensation for the property they de-
stroyed while executing the search warrant. Id. at 336.
We rejected both claims, devoting the lion’s share of our
analysis to Johnson’s Fourth Amendment claim. Id. at 334–36.
After finding no Fourth Amendment violation, we turned to
Johnson’s Fifth Amendment theory. We observed that the po-
lice’s “actions were taken under the state’s police power,” ra-
ther than the power of eminent domain. Id. at 336. For that
reason, “[t]he Takings Clause claim [wa]s a non-starter” be-
cause “the Takings Clause does not apply when property is
retained or damaged as the result of the government’s exer-
cise of its authority pursuant to some power other than the
power of eminent domain.” Id.
It is no surprise that with factual parallels so striking, John-
son’s holding bars Hadley’s claim. Hadley, like Johnson, suf-
fered extensive personal property damage at the hands of po-
lice executing a lawful search warrant. Hadley, like Johnson,
does not argue the warrant police secured was invalid or de-
fective. Rather, Hadley, like Johnson, seeks compensation
from police under the Fifth Amendment for the damage she
suffered. Johnson’s application to such facts is plain: the Fifth
Amendment does not require a state to compensate a plaintiff
for damages sustained while police execute a lawful search
warrant. Id.
Recognizing that Johnson speaks to her claim directly,
Hadley attempts to cast doubt on Johnson’s application be-
yond the facts before us. She takes issue principally with John-
son’s suggestion that takings under eminent domain are com-
pensable, whereas takings under the police power are not. Id.
No. 24-2448 7

She says this is incompatible with Supreme Court precedent

and so urges us to overrule Johnson.
B. Hadley presents no grounds to overturn Johnson.
If this case presented a claim outside the context of police
executing a lawful search warrant, we might need to grapple
with more of Hadley’s arguments. But it does not. Johnson set-
tled the issue here: whether the Takings Clause applies when
police damage property while executing a lawful search war-
rant. Johnson forecloses a takings claim under these circum-
stances, and Hadley gives us no reason to set that holding
aside.
We could end with this straightforward analysis showing
Johnson controls. Yet Hadley makes some sound observations
about our takings analysis in Johnson—abbreviated as it was,
because Johnson’s primary claim arose under the Fourth
Amendment—and highlights some issues we may need to
grapple with in future cases. Understanding Hadley’s argu-
ment requires some background. The “police power” refers to
a state’s general authority “to determine, primarily, what
measures are appropriate or needful for the protection of the
public morals, the public health, or the public safety.” Mugler
v. Kansas, 123 U.S. 623, 661 (1887). Historically, “eminent do-
main” referred to a state’s power to physically take property
by formally condemning it. Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid, 594
U.S. 139, 148 (2021). The prototypical Takings Clause claim
arises when a state physically takes land for public use by, for
example, condemning a warehouse and using it for military
purposes. United States v. Gen. Motors Corp., 323 U.S. 373, 375
(1945).
8 No. 24-2448

Though the Supreme Court has at times suggested that

the Takings Clause is limited to this more prototypical con-
text, e.g., Bennis v. Michigan, 516 U.S. 442, 452 (1996); United
States v. Dow, 357 U.S. 17, 21 (1958); United States v. Carmack,
329 U.S. 230, 236–37 (1946), the Court has also rejected rigid
distinctions between “eminent domain” and “police power”
actions, e.g., Lucas v. S.C. Coastal Council, 505 U.S. 1003, 1023–
25 (1992); Penn. Cent. Transp. Co. v. City of New York, 438 U.S.
104, 123–28 (1978); Penn. Coal Co. v. Mahon, 260 U.S. 393, 415
(1922). More recently, the Court observed that, given “the
nearly infinite variety of ways in which government actions
or regulations can affect property interests,” there is “no
magic formula” and “few invariable rules” in deciding
“whether a given government interference with property is a
taking.” Ark. Game & Fish Comm’n v. United States, 568 U.S. 23,
31 (2012).
Thus, whether through eminent domain or other
measures, a taking can occur through “two distinct classes”
of government action: (1) permanent deprivations or destruc-
tions of physical property or (2) actions that regulate how a
person can use their property, but do not appropriate, physi-
cally control, or destroy it. Yee v. City of Escondido, 503 U.S.
519, 522–23 (1992). The first is called a “per se” taking; the sec-
ond is called a “regulatory taking.” Cedar Point Nursery, 594
U.S. at 149. A regulatory taking may occur when the state ex-
ercises its police power to regulate how one uses property. Id.
That said, “[w]henever a regulation results in a physical ap-
propriation of property, a per se taking has occurred.” Id.
One way a government exercises its police power is when
it investigates criminal activity. See id. at 160–61. But the Court
has held the Fifth Amendment does not apply when a
No. 24-2448 9

government takes property by asserting a “pre-existing limi-

tation upon the landowner’s title.” Lucas, 505 U.S. at 1028–29.
These limitations include “traditional common law privi-
leges” like the “privilege to enter property to effect an arrest
or enforce the criminal law under certain circumstances.” Ce-
dar Point, 594 U.S. at 160–61. As such, “government searches
that are consistent with the Fourth Amendment and state law
cannot be said to take any property right from landowners.”
Id. at 161.
For example, in Bennis, the Court held that lawfully seiz-
ing a vehicle through civil forfeiture after a criminal investi-
gation is not a taking under the Fifth Amendment. Bennis, 516
U.S. at 452–53. There, the state seized a car after one of the
car’s owners, the husband, “engaged in sexual activity with a
prostitute” inside the car. Id. at 443. The Court declined to
award compensation to the other owner (the wife) for the
auto’s seizure because the state lawfully seized the car as an
instrumentality of a crime. Id. at 452–53. No taking occurred,
the Court reasoned, because the state “already lawfully ac-
quired [the car] under the exercise of governmental authority
other than the power of eminent domain.” Id. at 452.
Several of our sister circuits have recently considered
whether a taking occurs when a state damages property while
exercising its law-enforcement powers. E.g., Baker v. City of
McKinney, 84 F.4th 378 (5th Cir. 2023) (analyzing whether a
taking occurred when police damaged a plaintiff’s home dur-
ing a standoff with an armed fugitive), cert. denied, 145 S. Ct.
11 (mem.) (2024); Slaybaugh v. Rutherford County, 114 F.4th 593
(6th Cir. 2024) (analyzing whether a taking occurred when po-
lice damaged a plaintiff’s home while arresting a murder sus-
pect), cert. denied, 145 S. Ct. 1959 (2025). A decision from the
10 No. 24-2448

Ninth Circuit is also forthcoming. Pena v. City of Los Angeles,

No. 24-2422 (9th Cir. 2025), oral argument heard (Jan. 16, 2025)
(raising whether a business owner may bring a takings claim
for damage to his shop caused when police sought to appre-
hend a fugitive). But so far, no circuit to consider this issue
has awarded a plaintiff compensation. Nonetheless, two pre-
sent Justices recently expressed interest in this issue. In their
words, whether a taking occurs when law enforcement dam-
ages property remains an “open question … that would ben-
efit from further percolation” in the courts of appeals. Baker,
145 S. Ct. at 13 (Sotomayor, J., statement respecting denial of
certiorari, joined by Gorsuch, J.).
With this controversy in hand, Hadley prods us to enter
this debate anew. She urges us to abandon Johnson because it
suggested the Takings Clause categorically does not apply
when a government exercises its police powers. She says this
distinction does not match recent Supreme Court precedent,
which recognizes that a state may impose a taking when it
exercises its police power to, for example, regulate a land use.
Yee, 503 U.S. at 522–23. Because she says Johnson impermissi-
bly forecloses any takings claim arising from a state using its
police power writ large, she insists that Johnson must be over-
ruled.
We see things differently. As noted above, Johnson staked
our Circuit’s position on the specific issue in Hadley’s case—
whether the Fifth Amendment requires compensation when
police damage property while executing a valid search war-
rant. The answer is no. Johnson, 635 F.3d at 336. And, as dis-
cussed above, Johnson’s application in the law-enforcement
context is well supported by precedent from our sister circuits
and the Supreme Court. Hadley points us to no authority
No. 24-2448 11

showing this position is categorically wrong. Accordingly, we

need not decide whether Johnson governs outside Hadley’s
context. “[J]udicial opinions are not statutes,” and thus “[i]t is
always important to understand opinions in light of their
holdings and not take ambiguous statements for all they
might be worth.” Vinning-El v. Evans, 657 F.3d 591, 595 (7th
Cir. 2011). We adjudicate the case before us and “general ex-
pressions must be read in light of the subject under consider-
ation.” Lewis v. Zatecky, 993 F.3d 994, 1003 (7th Cir. 2021)
(quoting United States v. Skoien, 614 F.3d 638, 640 (7th Cir.
2010) (en banc)).
Indeed, Johnson itself suggests its holding might not apply
outside of the context of law enforcement damaging property
while executing a valid warrant. In rejecting Johnson’s claim
under the Fifth Amendment, Johnson relied on AmeriSource
Corporation v. United States, 525 F.3d 1149 (Fed. Cir. 2008).
Johnson, 635 F.3d at 336. There, the government had “seized a
large quantity” of pharmaceutical drugs from a plaintiff while
executing a valid search warrant. AmeriSource Corp. v. United
States, 75 Fed. Cl. 743, 744 (2007). The plaintiff asked the gov-
ernment to return the drugs before they expired and lost their
value, to no avail. AmeriSource, 525 F.3d at 1151–52. The Fed-
eral Circuit affirmed a decision by the Court of Federal Claims
rejecting the plaintiff’s takings claim. Id. at 1157. The Federal
Circuit observed that seizing property for “law enforcement
purposes” is “a classic example of the government’s exercise
of the police power to condemn contraband or noxious
goods,” which, the court concluded, is not a taking. Id. at 1153
(quoting Acadia Technology, Inc. v. United States, 458 F.3d 1327,
1332 (Fed. Cir. 2006)). Thus, in context, Johnson does not nec-
essarily foreclose takings claims outside the “classic example”
of police power: exercising law-enforcement authority.
12 No. 24-2448

Perhaps Hadley’s argument means we will have some dif-

ficult cases in the future that will require us to consider John-
son’s broader application. But this is not one of those cases.
The facts of Johnson are analogous to those at bar, and its re-
jection of compensation under the Takings Clause for dam-
ages to property during the execution of a lawful search war-
rant remains good law. Hadley’s wholesale critique of John-
son, based on the broadest imaginable reading of its language,
does not warrant revisiting it.
This is not to say Hadley was without recourse entirely.
She could have sued police alleging they violated the Fourth
Amendment by executing their search warrant unreasonably.
E.g., Cybernet, LLC v. David, 954 F.3d 162, 168–69 (4th Cir.
2020) (noting that “excessive or unnecessary destruction of
property in the course of a search may violate the Fourth
Amendment”). But she did not. And though she would have
had to overcome a qualified-immunity defense, that burden
is not insurmountable. San Jose Charter of Hells Angels Motor-
cycle Club v. City of San Jose, 402 F.3d 962, 971–75 (9th Cir. 2005)
(denying qualified immunity where officers cut down a mail-
box, jackhammered a sidewalk, and broke a refrigerator while
executing a lawful warrant).
Bringing a claim like Hadley’s under the Takings Clause,
rather than the Fourth Amendment, highlights deeper doctri-
nal tensions. Since the Founding, courts have analyzed police
searches under the Fourth Amendment—not the Fifth. See
Customer Co. v. City of Sacramento, 10 Cal. 4th 368, 386–88
(1995) (observing only two courts had awarded takings com-
pensation to property owners harmed by lawful police ac-
tions under state, not federal, constitutional provisions).
These two amendments serve distinct purposes. The Fourth
No. 24-2448 13

Amendment, unlike the Fifth, is the constitutional bulwark

against law enforcement invading the sanctity of the home.
Lange v. California, 594 U.S. 295, 309–10 (2021). The Fifth
Amendment involves the government’s taking of property
and allows for just compensation, something courts can de-
cide with a degree of certainty. See Knick v. Twp. of Scott, 588
U.S. 180, 191–94 (2019) (noting just compensation is owed im-
mediately after a taking occurs and explaining methods of ob-
taining compensation). Both the government’s decision to
take property and a court’s adjudication of the property’s
value can occur over an extended period, stretching years and
allowing for a careful balancing of interests. E.g., United States
v. Commodities Trading Corp., 339 U.S. 121, 123–24 (1950) (dis-
cussing how to value property taken).
In contrast, the Fourth Amendment does not require certi-
tude. For example, law enforcement must show probable
cause—requiring something more than “bare suspicion” but
less than “proof of a crime”—to obtain a warrant and invade
one’s home lawfully. Rainsberger v. Benner, 913 F.3d 640, 648–
49 (7th Cir. 2019) (Barrett, J.). And we analyze the execution
of warrants in terms of reasonableness, eschewing rigid cate-
gories and the carefully drawn balancing of interests. See
United States v. Banks, 540 U.S. 31, 35–36 (2003) (observing in
the Fourth Amendment context that “no template is likely to
produce sounder results than examining the totality of cir-
cumstances in a given case; it is too hard to invent categories
without giving short shrift to details that turn out to be im-
portant in a given instance, and without inflating marginal
ones”).
Nonetheless, Hadley sued under the Fifth Amendment,
not the Fourth. And Johnson forecloses her claim.
14 No. 24-2448

C. We have concerns about Hadley’s proposed holding.

As a reminder, Hadley urges us to hold that: “innocent
homeowner[s] with no connection to the sought-after sus-
pect[,] whose property the [government] intentionally and se-
verely damage[s] through a military-style assault … to exe-
cute a warrant to apprehend [a] suspect … when the property
otherwise would not have been damaged” are owed compen-
sation.
Mindful of our decisions’ precedential effect on future
cases, we have concerns about the administrability of Had-
ley’s proposed holding. It raises difficult questions, not least
of which is, how does one determine innocence? For example,
must an ancillary criminal proceeding conclude to show in-
nocence before proceeding with a takings claim? Does having
“no connection” with a suspect—as Hadley asserted herself—
render the landowner “innocent”?
These questions highlight the problems with Hadley’s
proposed holding. On the one hand, she urges us to impose a
bright line: that a taking occurred simply because the govern-
ment damaged her property. But on the other hand, her pro-
posed holding rests on fact-bound nuances and subtleties that
would be difficult to apply and are unaddressed by our prec-
edent. Regardless, we need not consider Hadley’s proposed
test further, as we apply Johnson’s rule to affirm.

III. Conclusion

For the foregoing reasons, we AFFIRM.