Sex Offender Must Meet Stigma-Plus Test to Sue for Reputation Damage by The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that reputational damage alone is insufficient to constitute a protected liberty interest. This 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action was brought by a minor against nine employees of the Hale County Department …
U.S. Supreme Court Holds There Is No Interlocutory Appeal on Municipal Liability by U.S. Supreme Court Holds There Is No Interlocutory Appeal on Municipal Liability The U.S. Supreme Court held that municipalities are not entitled qualified immunity from suit, and that appellate courts do not have authority to review unrelated …
Supreme Court Defines Federal Officials Immunity for State Tort Violations by The U.S. Supreme Court has held that federal officials are entitled to absolute immunity from state-law tort actions only when the federal official's conduct is within the scope of their official duties and the conduct is discretionary in nature. …
Counsel Required before Misdemeanor Imprisonment by The United States Supreme Court has ruled that persons convicted of misdemeanors cannot be subjected to imprisonment unless they have been afforded counsel at the time guilt or innocence is decided. LaReed Shelton was convicted of misdemeanor assault after his failed attempt at self-representation. …
$90,000 Settlement for Alabama Prisoners Raped by Jail Guards by In June 2002, the City of Homewood, Alabama, paid a total of $90,000 to settle with two unidentified women who claimed they were forced to provide sexual favors to guards while imprisoned at the city jail. The plaintiffs, Jane Doe, …
Monetary Sanctions Against DOC Commissioner Violates Alabama Constitution by The Alabama Supreme Court held that a trial court's imposition of monetary contempt sanctions against the Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Corrections (DOC), in his official capacity, violated Section 14 of the Alabama Constitution. In the early 1990s the Alabama …
$641,000 Settlement In Beating Death Of Alabama Jail Prisoner by Following the death a man who was allegedly beaten by jailers in a Montgomery, Alabama, jail, the City settled with the man's estate for $641,000. The decedent was arrested in June 1997 for fondling a 10-year-old girl and imprisoned in …
Supreme Court Holds Private Parties Cannot Litigate Title VIII Disparate Impact Claims by Supreme Court Holds Private Parties Cannot Litigate Title VIII Disparate Impact Claims There is no private right of action to enforce disparate-impact regulations promulgated under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The statute prohibits …
Requesting Party May Be Required to Pay Discovery Copying Costs by An African-American state trooper alleged employment discrimination. The magistrate judge should not have required defendants to produce photocopies of five years worth of personnel files of other officers; it was sufficient to produce two years' worth for review. Rule …
$1.45 Million Settlement in Mentally Ill Alabama Jail Prisoner's Death by Fifteen days after he entered Alabama's Mobile Jail, James Carpenter died of an infection from a flesh-eating bacteria. During his period of incarceration, Carpenter was kept in solitary confinement, naked and shackled on his hands and wrists. Abrasions from …
Court Orders Leg Shackled for Criminal Defendant by The court makes findings of fact memorializing its decision to require the plaintiff to be leg- shackled during his jury trial. He had a history of one escape, significant mental disability, and numerous disciplinary charges. The court relied in part on the …
Alabama County Commission Responsible for Jail Conditions by The decedent died in jail, allegedly because of a failure to provide adequate medical care, not described. Punitive damages cannot be awarded against the county under § 1983 or under state law. The County Commission cannot be held liable under state law …
Understaffed Jail Not Liable for Suicide by The decedent, arrested for DUI, told the arresting officer and a jail officer that his girlfriend recently hanged herself in another jail and that the other jurisdiction's police force did that to her. He told the admissions officer that if he had to …
BOP Proper Defendant in Work Release Change Suit under APA by The plaintiffs are criminal defendants who received judicial recommendations that they serve their sentences in a community corrections center, but were denied such placement pursuant to the Department of Justice's abruptly announced change of policy barring it except for …
No City Liability for Policeman's Sexual Assault, Strip Search of Minor by The plaintiff, a minor, was a passenger in a car whose driver was in possession of marijuana. The plaintiff was strip searched at the police station and the officer later made sexual advances toward him and restrained him …
Retaliation for Use of Grievance System Unconstitutional by The court of appeals for the Eleventh circuit held that a district court erred in dismissing an Alabama prisoner's retaliation lawsuit. The court held that a state created liberty interest in remaining at a given prison was not required when the prisoner …
Dismissal of Suit Against Alabama County for Juvenile Suicide Reversed by The Supreme Court of Alabama held that a circuit court erred when it dismissed a suit against the county stemming from a juvenile's death in county jail. Charles Keeton brought suit against Fayette County on behalf of his juvenile …
Two Postage Stamps Weekly Allows Access to Courts by The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed a district court's judgment upholding an Alabama prison mail policy of providing two free first-class postage stamps per week, per indigent prisoner. After reviewing the complaint raised in the prisoner's 42 …
Alabama Segregation Mail Ban, Conditions, Unconstitutional by The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that conditions of segregation and prohibitions of mail receipt by segregation prisoners at the Holman Unit of the Alabama State Penitentiary were unconstitutional. This appeal was consolidated to include several actions filed by prisoners alleging unconstitutional …
Fifth Circuit Denies Rehearing in Pugh v. Locke/Newman v. Alabama by The court of appeals for the Fifth Circuit denied en banc review of a class-action suit Alabama prisoners that challenged the conditions of confinement in Alabama state prisons. The ruling on the merits declaring the conditions unconstitutional and consolidated …
