Municipal Liability for Constitutional Violations: Can You Fight City Hall - A Survey of Circuits

Authors

Carl Harvison

Abstract

The Supreme Court's decision in Monroe v. Pape excluding municipalities as proper defendants in an action brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 has led imaginative lawyers to seek other statutory as well as constitutional bases for holding a municipality liable for the constitutional torts of its officers. The author outlines the reasoning behind each alternative cause of action, surveys the disparate treatment each has received among federal district and circuit courts, and calls for Supreme Court sanctioning of limited municipal liability based on 42 U.S.C. § 1981 and the fourteenth amendment.

First Page

373

Recommended Citation

Carl Harvison, Municipal Liability for Constitutional Violations: Can You Fight City Hall - A Survey of Circuits, 16 Duq. L. Rev. 373 (1977).
Available at: https://dsc.duq.edu/dlr/vol16/iss3/7