Civil Rights — municipal liability

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//March 12, 2014//

Listen to this article

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

Civil

Civil Rights — municipal liability

A municipality that merely follows state law in maintaining its voter rolls is not subject to municipal liability if that policy is illegal.

“[T]his situation does not support a finding of Monell liability. When state law unequivocally instructs a municipal entity to produce binary outcome X if condition Y occurs, we cannot say that the municipal entity’s ‘decision’ to follow that directive involves the exercise of any meaningful independent discretion, let alone final policymaking authority. It is the statutory directive, not the follow- through, which causes the harm of which the plaintiff complains.”

Affirmed.

13-1899 Snyder v. King

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Lawrence, J., Kanne, J.

Select Region or Brand

Upcoming Event