Did New Mexico Really “End” Qualified Immunity?
4/13/21
By: Wes Jackson
State and federal legislators are making a concerted push to end or curtail the defense of “qualified immunity,” which provides government employees a defense to civil rights claims in some circumstances. At the federal level, House Democrats …
Supreme Court Revisits Interplay Between First and Fourth Amendments
11/29/18
By: Wes Jackson
Imagine you commit a minor crime and an officer approaches you. The interaction goes south when you call the officer a “pig” and remind him that your tax dollars pay his salary. He then arrests you. Were …
Qualified Immunity Applied to Employment
10/3/18
By: Owen Rooney
In Kramer v. Cullinan 878 F.3d 1156 (9th Cir., 2018) the Ninth Circuit reversed the denial of a Motion for Summary Judgment, holding that that the employer’s public statement was not “stigmatizing” and defendant was entitled to …
Farmworker Union Sues to Overturn NC Law That Nixes Dues Checkoff and Voids Agreements Requiring Farmers to Sign Union Contracts
11/20/17
By: Paul H. Derrick
For years, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, a small Ohio-based union that is the only labor organization representing farmworkers in the State of North Carolina, has used actual and threatened lawsuits as a means of getting …
Qualified Immunity and The First Amendment – Why Plaintiffs Continue To Struggle Proving “Clearly Established Case Law”
10/3/17
By: Bradley T. Adler and Will Collins
The recent Eleventh Circuit decision Gaines v. Wardynski, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 18276, No. 16-15583 (11th Cir. Sept. 21, 2017), is a good reminder of the importance and value of qualified immunity …