A 1971 Supreme Court Decision of Doubtful Vitality Thwarts § 1983 Liability for Mistaken-Identity Arrests and Stifles Development of Clear Constitutional Rules - Kafka would love qualified immunity.1 Not only does current...more
Key Points: There is a constitutional right to medical care for those individuals in custody. Although there is a right to have a government actor intervene when the underlying constitutional violation involves excessive...more
Robinson v. Cleveland, 8th Dist. Cuyahoga No. 112798, 2024-Ohio-969 - A Cleveland police officer was stopped at a stop light. Without turning on his lights and sirens, he checked for oncoming traffic and advanced through the...more
In Thomas v. City of Harrisburg, et al., 2023 WL 8461096 (3d Cir. Dec. 6, 2023), the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit recently determined that police officers were not entitled to qualified immunity where...more
Akima v. Peca, 85 F.4th 416 (6th Cir. 2023) - The plaintiff, an Asian male in the U.S. on a visa, was pulled over for a broken headlight. The plaintiff attempted to exit the vehicle during the stop, allegedly a possible sign...more
DRI is proud to announce the 37th annual Civil Rights and Governmental Tort Liability Seminar in Phoenix, AZ! This seminar will provide you with invaluable information and tools to represent your governmental clients....more
Linden v. City of Southfield, Michigan, No. 22-1681, Jul. 26, 2023 - Emergency medical personnel were granted qualified immunity after pronouncing a person dead, despite her still demonstrating respiratory movement and...more
Miguelina Pena, et al. v. City of Lancaster et al., No. CV 21-590, 2023 WL 5807005, at *1 (E.D. Pa. Sept. 7, 2023) - Following the fatal shooting of her son during a mental health episode where he was in possession of a...more
In an opinion published on May 31, 2023, MacIntosh v Clous, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the conduct of a county commissioner who responded to a constituent’s criticisms during a virtual public meeting by...more
Know Your Civil Rights - Nobody is above the law. Law enforcement and other government work is a high calling of service. People deserve to trust the police and the government. Almost always, law enforcement officers and...more
The Nevada Supreme Court’s opinion and analysis in Mack v. Williams (2022) have the potential to fundamentally shift civil rights litigation from the Federal to the State court, but the door will not remain open for too long...more
This week, the Court addresses the availability of a Bivens cause of action against federal officials and certifies two insurance law questions to the Montana Supreme Court. The Court holds that a Bivens cause of action...more
Last week, we began discussing Radwan v. Manuel, a case recently decided by the U.S. Circuit Court for the Second Circuit regarding discipline faced by a soccer player at the University of Connecticut, a public institution....more
This week, the Court wrestles with a thorny First Amendment question that has divided other Courts of Appeals and considers district courts’ ability to impose sanctions under Rule 37(c)(1). The Court holds that two local...more
In Smith v. School Board for the City of Norfolk, Virginia, et al., No. 2:21-cv-138 (November 5, 2021), the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia refused to grant a motion to dismiss to the Norfolk School...more
Events from recent years related to alleged police misconduct raised major questions surrounding the protections afforded by qualified immunity to police officers in excessive force claims. Two recent Supreme Court decisions...more
Law enforcement critics have launched concerted attacks on the doctrine of qualified immunity in an effort to mischaracterize the doctrine as allowing police officers to escape liability for clearly unconstitutional conduct. ...more
On June 28, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Lombardo v. St. Louis, 20-391, holding per curium that excessive force precedent requires courts to employ a “careful, context-specific analysis” on summary judgment. In...more
In a 5-3 decision authored by Chief Justice Roberts, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Torres v. Madrid that a woman who was shot while fleeing from police officers was “seized,” even though she remained at large. ...more
Recent unrest has thrust the doctrine of qualified immunity into the spotlight. Many of those who oppose law enforcement frequently misrepresent the nature, extent, and intent of this limited immunity. Doing so fosters the...more
Brownback v. King, No. 19-546: Under the Federal Tort Claims Act (“FTCA”), a plaintiff is allowed to bring certain state-law tort suits against the Federal Government in federal court. An FTCA claim is actionable if it...more
This year saw substantial activity in FCA settlements and litigated court cases. Although no single case or development dominated the discourse this year, several important court decisions were issued, including two that may...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: Qualified immunity did not supply a Pennsylvania judge with a get out of jail free card, the Third Circuit concluded, holding that sexual harassment and retaliation in the workplace violate clearly...more
Federal Court Rejects New York City Police Officer’s Employment Discrimination Action The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has granted summary judgment to the defendants in an employment...more
This program will trace investigatory tactics and legal concepts from their blue-collar roots and discuss their application in a white-collar context, including: - Discussion of how the criminal justice system, and the...more