Comment:
Tort Liability of A State Official: Can a State Judge be Sued for Violating a Juveniles Constitutional Rights under Section 1983 of the Civil Rights Act? A state court judge presiding over cases brought against juvenile offenders, regularly sentenced those offenders to incarceration in detention facilities even for uttering a curse word, getting into a minor traffic accident, or creating a parody of a teachers MySpace page on the Internet. The judge had a financial interest to impose these sentences. He had used his influence to bring about closing of an older, existing juvenile detention facility, and secretly received millions of dollars from the companies who built two new detention centers in return for his commitment to keep it occupied. The judge often sentenced the offenders after hearings lasting under two minutes, and altered the detention centers as to the number of new inmates coming on a given day prior to those hearing. Judicial immunity extends to all judges judicial actions so long as they were taken with some claim to jurisdiction, notwithstanding malicious or corrupt motivation. Plaintiffs who had been incarcerated as juveniles as a result of the judges sentence brought a civil rights suit against him under the Civil Rights Act (42 U.S.C. Section 1983). Can the plaintiffs recover damages while they were incarcerated by the judge? Can the owners of the juvenile facility be held accountable for its actions related to this case? Has the judge engaged in criminal conduct or has he engaged in unethical conduct? Explain. What must be proven to establish a section 1983 violation of the Civil Rights Act? b. Can a judge be sued in the performance of his/her duties or does he/she have absolute immunity? d. Are the plaintiffs likely to be awarded both compensatory and punitive damages or will restitution, if any, likely come in some other way? Explain. You have to use these sources: 1/ Shelia Kennedy and David Schultz, American Public Service: Constitutional and Ethical Foundations. Jones & Bartlett Learning: Sudbury, MA., 2011. 2/ Daniel Feldman, Administrative Law: The Sources and Limits of Government Agency Power. Washington, D.C.: Sage/CQ Press, 2016, p.188-89.).
