Topic
Every decision we've filed under Civil Rights - Section 1983.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed summary judgment on a prisoner's First Amendment claim for damages due to untimely exhaustion of administrative remedies. The court dismissed her RLUIPA damages request as legally unavailable and dismissed her claims for injunctive relief as moot following her release from prison.
The Tenth Circuit reversed a district court's dismissal of a prisoner's excessive force claim, holding that video evidence did not blatantly contradict the plaintiff's allegation of twenty-three taser strikes. The court further ruled that the district court abused its discretion by dismissing the case under Heck v. Humphrey without providing the plaintiff notice to address the bar under his own version of events.
The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a pro se plaintiff's claims against the Georgia Department of Human Services, holding that the agency is protected by Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity. The court concluded that DHS functions as an arm of the state when enforcing child support laws and that neither the FDCPA nor Section 1983 abrogated this immunity.
The Fifth Circuit affirmed the denial of a preliminary injunction, holding that the Rooker-Feldman doctrine stripped the federal court of jurisdiction. The court ruled that the plaintiff's claims were an impermissible attempt to overturn a state child-support judgment rather than a challenge to ongoing constitutional violations.
The Fifth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for a prison official in a civil rights case, ruling that the inmate failed to prove deliberate indifference regarding his housing assignment. The court applied plain error review due to the appellant's failure to object to the magistrate judge's report and found no clear error in the district court's dismissal of the claim.
The Fourth Circuit reversed the denial of qualified immunity for detention officers, holding that the plaintiff failed to plead facts connecting specific officers to the inmate's death. The court ruled that collective allegations against a group of officers are insufficient to establish individual liability under the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Seventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a § 1983 claim alleging that police officers violated the substantive due process rights of child pornography victims by sharing their images with an untrained auxiliary officer. The court held that no fundamental liberty interest exists under the Fourteenth Amendment to prevent the government from sharing such materials with individuals assisting in an investigation, even if those individuals lack proper authority.
The Seventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal of plaintiffs' substantive due process claims against police officers who shared child pornography images with an untrained auxiliary officer. The court held that while the officers' conduct was improper, no fundamental constitutional right was violated because the delegation of access was not historically prohibited.
The Seventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal of plaintiffs' federal civil rights claims, holding that law enforcement's sharing of child pornography images with an auxiliary officer for identification purposes did not violate a clearly established substantive due process right. The court ruled that while the officer's subsequent misconduct was egregious, the officers' actions were not objectively unreasonable under existing precedent.
The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal of Larry Clark, Sr.'s federal civil rights claims arising from a long-running rent dispute and eviction proceedings. The court held that the private defendants were not state actors and that the judges were protected by absolute judicial immunity, leaving Clark without a viable federal cause of action.