Id. Id. Regardless, the FTCA judgment in this case is an on the merits decision that passes on the substance of Kings FTCA claims under the 1946 meaning or present day meaning of those terms. Hosts Mary Reichard and Jenny Rough analyze a case of simple facts and complicated law. is proper only when the claim is so . After finding the grant of summary judgment for the officers inappropriate due to the existence of material facts in dispute relating to qualified immunity, the Sixth Circuit remanded the case so that King could proceed with his Bivens action against Brownback. Get in touch with the media contact and take a look at the image resources for the case. Brief for Petitioner at 2932. at 17. Elizabeth B. Prelogar Solicitor General. IJ fights for the right to speak freely about the issues that matter most to ordinary people and to defend the free flow of information essential to democratic government and free enterprise. Simmons v. Himmelreich, 578 U. S. 621, 630, n. 5 (2016); see also ibid. That means a plaintiff must plausibly allege that the United States, if a private person, would be liable to the claimant under state law both to survive a merits determination under Rule 12(b)(6) and to establish subject-matter jurisdiction. Under this tort immunity, if a victim of federal abuse cannot sue the federal government for a state tortlike assault, battery, false arrest, etc.he cannot hold the governments employee liable for a constitutional violation either. The judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is reversed. Worse still, Kent County, Michigan, prosecutors refused to drop the charges. After noting that the FBI had managed the joint task force, the Sixth Circuit found that King could proceed with a Bivens actionrather than a 1983 claimbecause Brownback was acting pursuant to the authority of the United States, not the State of Michigan, when the alleged use of excessive force occurred. . See King v. United States, 917 F.3d 409, 418421 (2019). Id., at 506507. There are, of course, counterarguments. Plaintiffs were (and are) required to bring claims under the FTCA in federal district court. If petitioners are right, Kings failure to show bad faith, which is irrelevant to his constitutional claims, means a jury will never decide whether the officers violated Kings constitutional rights when they stopped, searched, and hospitalized him. at 43233. But where, as here, pleading a claim and pleading jurisdiction entirely overlap, a ruling that the court lacks subject-matter jurisdiction may simultaneously be a judgment on the merits that triggers the judgment bar.8 A dismissal for lack of jurisdiction is still a judgment. See Restatement of Judgments 49, Comment a, at 193194 (discussing judgment . The case, Brownback v. King, began in 2014, when officers working with an FBI task force in Grand Rapids, Michigan, tackled, choked and punched college student James King in the head after mistaking him for a fugitive.