A federal appeals court has sharply limited an Atlanta family’s effort to recover damages from the government over a mistaken 2017 FBI raid on their home, holding that their claims against the United States cannot proceed to trial even as claims against the lead agent personally may continue.

The ruling is significant because it draws a familiar but still consequential line in federal civil-rights litigation: suing the government itself is often far harder than suing an individual officer, and sometimes impossible, even when the underlying facts involve an acknowledged error.