Faculty Bibliography

New to the 2nd Edition: Up-to-date coverage of major developments—including the national reckoning on race and policing after George Floyd’s murder, COVID-19 prison conditions litigation, laws like Texas S.B. 8 designed to evade pre-enforcement challenges, new Bivens decisions, limitations on damages under Titles VI and IX, and the momentous Supreme Court term ending June 2022 Two new chapters on constitutional claims often brought against police or in custodial settings—including under the 4th and 8th Amendments and substantive and procedural due process—to explore how enforcement documents shape constitutional law and vice versa, and to facilitate coverage of topics that often fall through the cracks in constitutional law curricula Expanded coverage of major topics, including: Standing (organizational standing; defining an injury; policing and injunctive relief; pre-enforcement challenges) Qualified immunity (the reform movement; sources of “clearly established law”; the obviousness exception; private-actor applications) Municipal liability (custom; failure to supervise; applications of the “final policymaker” theory; the interaction of qualified immunity and failure to train) Statutory causes of action (42 U.S.C. § 1985; Title VII; ADA; Rehabilitation Act) And more! (COVID-19 conditions; modern school district boundary fights; applications of the Heck bar; expansion of sovereign immunity; the evolution of supervisory liability).

Reformers are taking aim at the doctrine of ‘qualified immunity,’ which protects government officials from liability for violating the rights of citizens.

"Described as “superb” and “inspiring” by Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, Civil Rights Enforcement dives deeply into doctrines concerning the enforcement of civil rights (rather than the content of those rights) and the aspects of those doctrines of most importance to those litigating in the field. The book is organized as a litigator might think through a case, and it provides students rich, detailed hypothetical problems to which they can apply what they are learning. Alongside these practice-focused elements, the book’s notes, questions, and topic transitions push students to grapple both with (1) strategic questions about impact litigation and the role of civil rights litigation in constitutional enforcement, and (2) theoretical questions such as tradeoffs between the values of federalism and judicial review and the relationship between rights and remedies." -- Wolters Kluwer