LAW 760 - Civil Rights Litigation

Course Type: Upper Level Elective
Credits: 3

Description: 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 deliberate indifference and deaths in prisons and jails. The course will also cover how litigants can obtain judicial relief against federal officers for their violations of the Constitution (Bivens actions). This course will briefly look at the surviving remnants of other Reconstruction Era civil rights legislation such as 42 U.S.C. §§1981, 1982, and 1985. 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, among other areas.