Civil Rights Act actions also referred to as 1983 Actions because the actions stated were brought under Title 42, 1983 of the Civil Rights Act of 1871, passed after the Civil War. The actions stated under the Civil Rights Act allows plaintiffs to get into federal or state courts to sue state police officers and their agency heads, county sheriffs and the deputies and municipal officers and their chiefs for violation plaintiffs federal constitutional rights. Section 1983 states that all individuals under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom or usage of any state or territory, subjects or causes should be subjected to the deprivation of any rights, privileges or immunity stated by the constitution and law ( Walden v. Fiore , 2014).
The element plaintiff in 1983 actions against the state and local law enforcement officers have to prove if the officers act according to written policies, statements or ordinances approved by authorized official bodies ( Vega v. Hempstead Union Free School Dist. , 2d Cir. 2015). Also, another element is the officers’ actions that cause depreciation of plaintiffs’ rights guaranteed by the US constitution. The actions caused the violation of plaintiffs’ constitutional rights ( Vega v. Hempstead Union Free School Dist. , 2d Cir. 2015).
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Section 1983 does not mean that officers are liable every time they violate individual’s constitutional rights. Far from it, the US Supreme Court has read several limits into the statutory protection of locals’ rights. Some of the limits are; plaintiffs are unable to recover from accidental or even negligent violations of their federal civil rights and therefore law enforcement officer’s violations must be deliberate ( Walden v. Fiore , 2014). Another limit is that state and local officers are protected by the same qualified immunity under 1983 that federal officers have under Bivens and the Federal Tort Claims Act. From these limits, no affirmative duty to protect rule plaintiffs can sue an individual officer or government unit for failing to stop a person from violating the rights by inflicting injuries on them.
References
Vega v. Hempstead Union Free School Dist. , 801 F.3d 72 (2d Cir. 2015).
Walden v. Fiore , 134 S. Ct. 1115, 571 U.S. 12, 188 L. Ed. 2d 12 (2014).
