The en banc Eighth Circuit was sharply divided about the existence of a Fourth Amendment seizure in a case where, among other things, a person fled after an officer in a police car stopped directly in front of him and his friend, one Michael Brown (yes, that Michael Brown, who was subsequently shot and killed ..read more

Section 1983 damages liability for constitutional violations depends on the threshold existence of a defendant’s state action within the meaning of the 14th Amendment and on the related statutory requirement of color of law. Fortunately, the general rule about the relationship between state action and color of law may be simply put: where there is ..read more

The Intervention Question Suppose a police officer continues to use life-endangering force even after it is obvious that a misdemeanor arrestee (who has no weapon) is under control and not a danger to others, including police officers. As a result of this use of excessive force, the arrestee dies. This is a violation of clearly ..read more

The Background: The Supreme Court’s Janus Decision Recall the Supreme Court’s blockbuster decision in Janus v. AFSCME, 138 S. Ct. 2448 (2018)(Janus I), overruling Abood v. Detroit Bd. of Educ., 431 U.S. 209 (1977), and holding that it now violates the First Amendment rights of union nonmembers for state and local governments, and for public ..read more

As many of you know, Covid-19 prevented Chicago-Kent’s 37th Annual Conference on Section 1983 from taking place, as originally scheduled, on April 23-24, 2020. Still, in order to celebrate the Conference, several weeks ago I provided an encore podcast presentation on Damages and Procedural Defenses (search for “damages and procedural defenses”). In order to further ..read more

This is the tenth in a series of posts about the United States Constitution written in everyday language with a minimum of legal jargon. These posts are not intended to provide legal advice and should not be used for that purpose. (Previous posts introduced the Constitution, rebutted some commonly held myths about the Constitution,  addressed the Equal Protection Clause, considered free ..read more

The Knick takings decision The Supreme Court, in Knick v. Township of Scott, 139 S. Ct. 2162 (2019), a game-changing 5-4 takings decision, overruled Williamson County Regional Planning Comm’n v. Hamilton Bank, 473 U.S. 172 (1985). In Knick, the district court had dismissed a property owner’s section 1983 takings claim for damages against a local government ..read more

This is the ninth in a series of posts about the United States Constitution written in everyday language with a minimum of legal jargon. These posts are not intended to provide legal advice and should not be used for that purpose. (Previous posts introduced the Constitution, rebutted some commonly held myths about the Constitution,  addressed the Equal Protection Clause, considered free ..read more

Section 1983 Takings Claims and Williamson County (1985) In 1985, the Supreme Court held in Williamson County Regional Planning Comm’n v. Hamilton Bank, 473 U.S. 172 (1985),  that a section 1983 takings claim for damages cannot be brought in federal court, and is not ripe, unless the challenged local government conduct is final and the ..read more

You might want to check this out. Some weeks ago I participated in a 55 minute podcast on free speech in the university, together with a philosophy colleague at Illinois Tech, Michael Davis. The discussion, organized by Illinois Tech, was animated, far reaching (beyond the university) and personally enjoyable to me. IMHO, it would be ..read more