In the case of Taylor v. Barkes (2014), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of prison officials, absolving them from liability for a prisoner's suicide due to their failure to implement an adequate suicide prevention protocol. The family of Christopher Barkes filed a lawsuit against two Delaware prison administrators, Stanley Taylor and Raphael Williams, alleging that they violated Barkes' Eighth Amendment rights by showing "deliberate indifference" towards his medical needs which led to his death by suicide within hours of incarceration. However, the court held that at the time of Barkes' death in 2004, there was no clearly established law holding officials responsible for failing to prevent inmate suicides; thus they could not be held liable under Section 1983 - a statute authorizing lawsuits against government officials for civil rights violations.

In the dissenting opinion for Taylor v. Barkes, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, argued that qualified immunity should not have been granted to the prison officials. They contended that it was clearly established at the time of Christopher Barkes' suicide in 2004 that a failure to implement appropriate suicide prevention protocols could constitute deliberate indifference towards an inmate's medical needs and thus violate their Eighth Amendment rights. The dissenting justices believed there was sufficient evidence to suggest such deliberate indifference on part of the prison officials due to their reliance on outdated and inadequate procedures for screening inmates' mental health conditions and risks of self-harm. Therefore, they concluded that these officials were not entitled to qualified immunity from being held accountable for Barkes' death.