The question before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Tully v. Rush County Prosecutor Paul Barada et al was whether one who had been issued a citation and had not been incarcerated could sue for false arrest on the grounds that the prosecutor had violated their Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights when probable cause did not exist to charge them.

The Seventh Circuit ruled that a Section 1983 claim cannot be based purely on a citation without an actual arrest. A citation, unlike an arrest does not involve a seizure under the Fourth Amendment.

Michael Tully and Brock Carfield were convicted of shooting across a highway in Indiana after a citizen reported hearing gun shots and they were found with a gun and a dead raccoon in their vehicle. The conviction was reversed on appeal and they sued.

The Court found that they did not have a cause of action since they were cited and were not arrested. They had not been seized under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments and therefore could not sue. Probable cause, without an arrest, according to the Seventh Circuit is not cause for a 1983 cause of action.