Civil Rights Litigation

This course will focus on constitutional litigation under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Section 1983 is a Reconstruction era civil rights statute that allows victims of unconstitutional state action to sue those persons who have injured them. Section 1983 actions run the gamut from police brutality litigation, to suits brought by businesses and property owners raising challenges to the constitutionality of state and local governmental regulation. The course will also cover how litigants can obtain judicial relief against federal officers for their violations of the Constitution. Considerable emphasis will be placed on procedural, jurisdictional, and other barriers to relief—especially problems surrounding the immunities of governments and their officers from suit. Because this course deals primarily with constitutional litigation, it will not directly address other statutes that prohibit various forms of private discrimination in employment, housing, and education.