Identify two elements plaintiffs in 1983 actions against state ...

[kellyjaisingh]

Identify two elements plaintiffs in  1983 actions against state and local law enforcement officers have to prove. Identify and describe two limits placed by the U.S. Supreme Court in  1983 actions against state and local officers.
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

Identify and describe the differences between two kinds of state civil lawsuits against individual state officers.
 
  What will be an ideal response?

[komodo7]

Answer to Question 1

In a  1983 action against state and local law enforcement officers, the plaintiffs must
prove two elements.
(1) Plaintiffs must prove that the officials acted under color of state law, which
includes all acts done within the scope of the officers' employment.
(2) The officers' actions must have caused the deprivation of plaintiff's federal rights.
Besides the two statutory elements that plaintiffs must prove in a  1983 action the
U.S. Supreme Court has added two more.
(1) Plaintiffs cannot recover for accidental or even negligent violations of their federal
civil rights. The law enforcement officers' violations must be deliberate.
(2) State and local officers are protected by the same qualified immunity under  1983
that federal officers have under Bivens and the Federal Tort Claims Act.

Answer to Question 2

Plaintiffs can sue individual state officers in two types of cases: First, state tort
lawsuits, and second, federal U.S. Civil Rights Act lawsuits.
A state tort lawsuit is brought to recover monetary damages for injuries caused by
officials' civil wrongs against the plaintiff. Examples of such civil wrongs are assault,
false arrest, trespass, breaking and entering.
Federal U.S. Civil Rights lawsuits are brought under Title 42, Section 1983 of the Civil
Rights Act of 1871 . This allows plaintiffs to go into federal courts to sue state law
enforcement agencies and individual law enforcement officers for violating plaintiff's
federal constitutional rights.