NEW YORK TIMES: "Renee Good’s Family Should Be Able to Sue the Officer Who Killed Her"

From Erwin Chemerinsky and Burt Neuborne's 1-14-26 NEW YORK TIMES Op-Ed piece entitled "Renee Good’s Family Should Be Able to Sue the Officer Who Killed Her":

If Renee Good had been killed by a state or local police officer rather than an ICE agent, her family could sue the shooter for excessive force and violating her rights. But there is no law that allows federal officers to be sued for their constitutional violations. Congress should pass long-overdue legislation to fix this anomaly: a Renee Good Civil Rights Act.

Federal officials can be held criminally liable for their actions. But, because of the hole in federal law, civil suits against them struggle to move forward. In one case, the Supreme Court held that people who had been illegally thrown off the Social Security disability rolls and were left without income could not sue, even though they had been given no due process. In another, the court declared that a man dying of cancer after the prison repeatedly denied him any medical care could not sue. Similarly, the court ruled that people illegally detained after Sept. 11 and subjected to great abuse by prison guards had no remedy.

Yet for over 150 years, civil suits against state and local officials have been allowed. Soon after the Civil War, significant violations of civil rights, especially in the former rebel states, led Congress to recognize the need to empower federal courts to enforce the Constitution when it is violated by a state or local government. The Civil Rights Act of 1871 makes it a crime for state or local officers to use their authority “under color of law” to violate a person’s rights. The act also allows civil suits for monetary damages or injunctive relief against any state or local employees who, in the course of their work, violate the Constitution or federal laws.

That second provision, known as Section 1983, is the basis for virtually all lawsuits against state and local governments and officials who violate the Constitution. If a city adopts an ordinance that violates the First Amendment, a citizen can sue the city under Section 1983. If a police officer uses excessive force, which the Supreme Court has held violates the Fourth Amendment, the victim can sue the officer under Section 1983. Section 1983 suits account for a significant part of the workload of federal courts.

But Section 1983 applies only to those acting under the authority of state law. That is why the Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who murdered George Floyd, could be sued under Section 1983. (Mr. Floyd’s family did sue Mr. Chauvin and others, and the lawsuit was settled for $27 million.) The ICE officer who killed Renee Good cannot be sued under that statute.

There is no comparable federal law that allows suits against federal officers who violate the Constitution.

To read the entire article, click HERE.