Civil Rights Deserts
Fred Smith (Stanford Law) and I wrote an essay for a symposium at Harvard Law School convened to consider threats to democracy and accountability in the second Trump Administration. Smith and I write that such threats are nothing new--indeed they exist throughout our country in what we call "civil rights deserts." We illustrate what we call "accountability deserts" and "enforcement deserts" through harrowing stories of civil rights abuses in Rankin County and Hinds County, M
The Tenacious Power of Constitutional Torts
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of giving the Paul M. Van Arsdell Jr. Memorial Lecture at the University of Illinois College of Law. The lecture is intended to "promote thoughtful discussion on litigation and dispute resolution systems and the highest ethical ideals of the legal profession." I decided to use the opportunity to articulate what suing the government can accomplish, both because I've recently written a book dedicated to explaining just how difficult it is to
My New Article: Monell's Quick Fix
One of the most powerful legal barriers to accountability under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 is Monell—the Supreme Court decision that recognized municipalities can be held responsible for constitutional violations by their officers but set an exceedingly high standard for such claims. Many have called for Monell to be replaced with vicarious liability, and some courts and legislators have expressed interest in the idea, but immediate prospects for meaningful reforms are dim. In this Art
