#Congress authorized the first kind of lawsuit in an 1871 #law that most people call §1983. But Congress has not enacted #legislation allowing suits against #federal ofcls for violating the #Constitution.
“It’s an enormous problem that federal officials are in some ways the hardest people to hold accountable for violating people’s constitutional rights, even harder than state & local officials,” said Carolyn Shapiro, a prof at Chicago-Kent College of Law & a fmr solicitor general of Illinois.
#SCOTUS tried to address the gap in 1971 in Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents, allowing the victim of an #unconstitutional search by #federal agents to sue them. But the court has essentially abandoned that approach, saying instead that #Congress must act if suits against federal ofcls are to be allowed.
[I personally don’t see this SCOTUS dealing with the issue given their stance on expansive #ExecutivePower]
#Trump #law #UseOfForce #Constitution #StatesRights #CivilRights #autocracy #ICE #CBP