Section 1983 Outline

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

Office of Staff Attorneys

Section 1983 Outline

Originally Written in 2002

By Kent Brintnall

Updated Summer 2011

By Office of Staff Attorneys

United States Court of Appeals

for the Ninth Circuit

This outline is not intended to express the views or opinions of the Ninth Circuit,

and it may not be cited to or by the courts of this circuit.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many thanks to the staff attorneys and others who have reviewed sections of this outline, and

have contributed valuable comments and corrections.

Corrections and comments should be e-mailed to Jennifer Rich at

jennifer_rich@ca9.

Table of Contents

I.

GENERAL ¡ì 1983 PRINCIPLES ...............................................................1

A.

Elements of a ¡ì 1983 Action ........................................................................1

1. Person ............................................................................................................2

a. States ........................................................................................................2

b. Territories .................................................................................................2

c. Local Governmental Units .......................................................................2

(1) Status as Persons ................................................................................2

(2) Theory of Liability .............................................................................3

(a) Municipal Policy ...............................................................................4

(b) Municipal Custom ............................................................................5

(c) Municipality¡¯s Failure to Train.........................................................6

(d) Pleading Standard .............................................................................7

d. Agencies ...................................................................................................7

e. State Officials...........................................................................................9

(1) Official Capacity ................................................................................9

(2) Personal Capacity.............................................................................10

(3) Determining Capacity ......................................................................10

f. Federal Officials.....................................................................................11

2. Acting under Color of State Law ................................................................11

a. General Principles ..................................................................................11

b. Applications ...........................................................................................12

(1) State Employees ...............................................................................12

(2) Prison Officials ................................................................................12

(3) Prison Physicians .............................................................................13

(4) Public Defenders ..............................................................................13

(5) Private Parties ..................................................................................14

(6) Federal Employees ...........................................................................15

3. Deprivation of a Right.................................................................................15

a. Rights Guaranteed by the Constitution ..................................................15

b. Rights Guaranteed by Federal Statutes ..................................................15

c. Rights Guaranteed by State Law ...........................................................17

B.

State-of-Mind Requirement .......................................................................17

C.

Causation ....................................................................................................17

1. General Principles .......................................................................................17

2. Supervisory Liability...................................................................................18

3. Local Governmental Unit Liability .............................................................19

4. Relationship to Relief Sought .....................................................................19

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5. Pleading Standards ......................................................................................19

D.

Immunities ..................................................................................................19

1. Absolute Immunity .....................................................................................19

a. Basic Principles ......................................................................................20

(1) Determining Eligibility for Absolute Immunity ..............................20

(2) Burden of Proof Regarding Eligibility for Absolute Immunity ......21

(3) Effect of Absolute Immunity ...........................................................21

(4) Application to Bivens Actions .........................................................21

b. Judicial Immunity ..................................................................................21

(1) Basic Principles ................................................................................21

(2) Eligibility .........................................................................................22

(a) Judges..............................................................................................22

(b) Magistrate Judges ...........................................................................23

(c) Administrative Agency Hearing Officers .......................................24

(d) Court Mediators ..............................................................................24

(e) Court-Appointed Psychiatrists ........................................................24

(f) Court Employees .............................................................................24

(g) Parole Board Officials ....................................................................25

(h) Probation Officers ...........................................................................25

c. Prosecutorial Immunity ..........................................................................25

(1) Basic Principles ................................................................................25

(2) Eligibility .........................................................................................29

(a) Attorneys .........................................................................................29

(b) Agency Officials .............................................................................29

(c) Social Workers ................................................................................29

d. Presidential Immunity ............................................................................30

e. Legislative Immunity .............................................................................30

f. Witness Immunity ..................................................................................30

g. Ineligibility .............................................................................................31

(1) Local Governmental Units ...............................................................31

(2) Prison Officials ................................................................................31

(3) Defense Counsel ..............................................................................31

(4) Police Officers .................................................................................31

(5) Court Reporters ................................................................................32

(6) Executive Officials...........................................................................32

2. Qualified Immunity .....................................................................................32

a. Basic Principles ......................................................................................33

(1) Eligibility .........................................................................................33

(a) Identifying the Right .......................................................................34

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(b) Clearly Established Right ...............................................................35

(2) Ineligibility .......................................................................................37

(a) Local Governmental Units ..............................................................37

(b) Municipal Employees .....................................................................37

(c) Private Individuals ..........................................................................37

b. Pleading: Plaintiff¡¯s Allegations ...........................................................38

c. Pleading: Affirmative Defense .............................................................39

d. Burdens of Proof ....................................................................................39

e. Discovery ...............................................................................................40

f. Dismissal ................................................................................................40

g. Summary Judgment ...............................................................................40

h. Interlocutory Appeals.............................................................................41

3. Eleventh Amendment Immunity .................................................................42

a. Basic Principle .......................................................................................42

b. Inapplicability of Amendment ...............................................................43

(1) Local Governmental Units ...............................................................43

(2) State Officials...................................................................................43

(a) Official Capacity .............................................................................43

(b) Personal Capacity ...........................................................................44

c. Abrogation .............................................................................................44

d. Waiver ....................................................................................................46

e. Violations of State Law .........................................................................46

f. Burden of Proof......................................................................................47

g. Interlocutory Appeals.............................................................................47

E.

Remedies ....................................................................................................47

1. Damages ......................................................................................................47

a. Compensatory ........................................................................................47

b. Punitive ..................................................................................................48

c. Presumed ................................................................................................49

d. Nominal ..................................................................................................49

2. Injunctive Relief ..........................................................................................49

a. Law Prior to Enactment of the Prison Litigation Reform Act ...............50

b. Law after Enactment of the Prison Litigation Reform Act ...................50

3. Declaratory Relief .......................................................................................51

F.

Exhaustion of Remedies .............................................................................52

1. State Remedies ............................................................................................52

2. Prison Administrative Remedies.................................................................53

G.

Statute of Limitations .................................................................................56

1. General Principles .......................................................................................56

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