Excerpt
In the Civil Rights Act of 1871 (also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act), Congress gave individuals a means of seeking restitution in Federal courts for discriminatory conduct by State employees acting in their official capacities. As codified in 42 U.S. Code Section 1983, the law gave the victims of race, sex, religion, or citizenship discrimination a new legal remedy to pursue when their State’s judicial system was unresponsive.
In the 1961 case Monroe v. Pape, however, the U.S. Supreme Court expanded the law’s scope to include State actors who infringed on an individual’s civil rights in violatio…
In This Issue
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Decision of the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals
Joseph Hrvol and David Richter Have Qualified Immunity From a Section 1983 Lawsuit
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Section 1983 of the Civil Rights Act of 1871
Federal Efforts to Enforce the Fourteenth Amendment
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Foreword: Prosecutorial Immunity
Suing State Officials for Civil Rights Violations
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Oral Arguments for Pottawattamie County, et al. v. Harrington, et al.
The Justices Consider Prosecutorial Immunity and the Fourteenth Amendment
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Pro & Con
Are Prosecutors Who Frame Innocent Defendants Immune from Civil Rights Lawsuits?