(decided February 21, 2025)
The federal civil rights statute at 42 U.S.C. Section 1983, is currently understood to allow lawsuits in state courts, based on allegations that state laws have been violated. In this case, the Court ruled 5-4 that a state court must hear and decide such a lawsuit, despite any state law immunities that might be available to the defendant. The Supreme Court said its ruling was required by a Section 1983 precedent in which a different plaintiff, a state prisoner, had invoked Section 1983 in his state court lawsuit to allege behavior by prison officials that could amount to Cruel and Unusual Punishment under the federal Constitution. The Court clearly ruled that state law immunities were unavailable to the defending prison officials.
Justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Barrett dissented from the Court’s ruling.
COMMENT: The caselaw precedent that the Court relied on was clearly distinguishable, in its facts, from the case being decided by the Court here. The longstanding and important judicial practice of following caselaw precedent does not apply to alleged precedents with substantially different facts. More importantly, the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution would appear to clearly contradict the Court’s interpretation of a federal statute, 42 U.S.C. Section 1983, in this case. The Court erred in its ruling in this case.
RECENT RULINGS 