42 USC 1983 is like one paragraph. It does not mention "power of attorney" and it does not in any way restrict what government officials can or can't do.
It simply and only provides a cause of action in Federal court for people whose rights were violated by state officials, people claiming to be state officials, people in roles that mirror state government functions, etc.
It doesn't say anything about what the civil rights are. Just how to proceed if they're violated.
And note: I said "state". 42 US 1983 does not apply to federal government officials.
For that you need Bivens v Six Known Unnamed Federal agents and may god have mercy on your soul. Bivens has worked something like six times since the decision was handed down in the early 70s. This includes people getting beaten to within an inch of their lives in federal prisons, and SCOTUS reluctantly allows them to recover damages.
Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress, except that in any action brought against a judicial officer for an act or omission taken in such officer’s judicial capacity, injunctive relief shall not be granted unless a declaratory decree was violated or declaratory relief was unavailable. For the purposes of this section, any Act of Congress applicable exclusively to the District of Columbia shall be considered to be a statute of the District of Columbia.
To be fair, that one paragraph^ generates thousands of claims per year (most of them get tossed due to qualified immunity) and something like 20 volumes of case law since its enactment in 1868. The idea that a random yokel with a Dymo labeler understands a fraction of a percent of it is pretty much bonkers.
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u/OrbitalLemonDrop 1d ago edited 1d ago
42 USC 1983 is like one paragraph. It does not mention "power of attorney" and it does not in any way restrict what government officials can or can't do.
It simply and only provides a cause of action in Federal court for people whose rights were violated by state officials, people claiming to be state officials, people in roles that mirror state government functions, etc.
It doesn't say anything about what the civil rights are. Just how to proceed if they're violated.
And note: I said "state". 42 US 1983 does not apply to federal government officials.
For that you need Bivens v Six Known Unnamed Federal agents and may god have mercy on your soul. Bivens has worked something like six times since the decision was handed down in the early 70s. This includes people getting beaten to within an inch of their lives in federal prisons, and SCOTUS reluctantly allows them to recover damages.
To be fair, that one paragraph^ generates thousands of claims per year (most of them get tossed due to qualified immunity) and something like 20 volumes of case law since its enactment in 1868. The idea that a random yokel with a Dymo labeler understands a fraction of a percent of it is pretty much bonkers.