The ongoing legal battle following a controversial police shooting of a woman has finally come to a close, with the majority of The Supreme Court ruling in favor of the officer due to a lack of precedent for the case.

Without any briefing or oral arguments, the justices overturned a previous ruling in the case of Kisela v. Hughes. The initial incident which sparked the lawsuit took place in 2010, when police corporal Andrew Kisela shot and wounded Amy Hughes, who had been holding a knife at the time of the shooting.

Hughes and her roommate stated that she had held the knife in a non-threatening manner at her side, and that Kisela’s decision to shoot qualified as excessive force. Though the previous appeals court ruled in Hughes’ favor, The Supreme Court stated Monday that because there was no constitutional precedent for which Kisela could reference at the time of the incident, he has qualified immunity from any legal persecution.

Guest:

Clark Neily, vice president for criminal justice at Cato Institute

Kent Scheidegger, legal director and general counsel at the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a Sacramento organization dedicated to criminal justice policy issues