Estate of Anthony Lezurro Miller, The v. United States of America et al

On March 31, 2026, the U.S. District Court ruled on the Estate of Anthony Lezurro Miller's wrongful death suit against the United States and unknown federal agents. The estate, led by administrator Linda Miller, alleged that DEA agents used excessive force during a flawed 2023 raid in Detroit, killing Miller. The United States moved to dismiss, invoking sovereign immunity and the discretionary function exception. The court denied the motion, holding that the planning and execution of the raid involved operational, not discretionary, decisions, allowing the Fourth Amendment claims to proceed to discovery.

The court denied the government's motion to dismiss, permitting the excessive force and wrongful death claims to advance to trial or settlement.

Whether the Federal Tort Claims Act's discretionary function exception immunizes the United States from liability for tactical decisions during a federal raid, and whether the force used by agents violated the Fourth Amendment's reasonableness standard.

The ruling renewed scrutiny of federal law enforcement accountability and the limits of qualified immunity under the FTCA, prompting legislative proposals to restrict discretionary function defenses in cases involving fatal police operations.