Federal Judge: "Stop wasting my time with your § 1983 lawsuits"

(H/T: Eugene Volokh), from Brock v. City of Ord, NE: Guy Brock is a town gadfly who sent letters of complaint to various municipal officials; those officials agreed to sue Brock in state court seeking damages and an injunction prohibiting from sending letters to town officials unless related to him or his property; the state claim was dismissed. Brock then filed a § 1983 action seeking damages; the court denied a 12(b)(6) motion, concluding Brock stated a claim and the officials were not entitled to qualified immunity (because it should be pretty damn obvious that you cannot get a prior restraint to stop people from complaining about public officials).

But then there is this:

But just because this case will be permitted to proceed doesn't mean it ought to. All of the people involved with this lawsuit should regret being here. To begin with, nearly every public official draws the attention of critics and cranks who have opinions they insist on sharing. This Court has no shortage of its own pen pals. But rather than accept that as one of the privileges of public service, the defendants decided to pursue a lawsuit that asked a state court to impose a prior restraint on the plaintiff's speech. The plaintiff, for his part, prevailed in that case, and for his part could have been content with having his First Amendment rights vindicated by that victory—but instead, he's filed another lawsuit in response, despite facing no current peril.

This Court's docket is full of cases genuinely implicating lives,livelihoods, and liberty—but instead of addressing those claims, the Court finds its attention diverted by having to referee this squabble.

Shorter: "Yeah, I guess the defendants did a bad thing, but the plaintiff is really in the he wrong here. He fought back the attempted constitutional misconduct and no longer faces any constitutional violations, so he should take that victory and go home. Stop bothering the nice officials of Ord, NE or wasting my precious life-tenure time."

Judge Gerrard (an Obama appointee, by the way, so this is not partisan) is essentially telling people not to file § 1983 damages actions, at least where no physical or property injury, and thus real money, is not at stake. A purpose of § 1983, as expanded in Monroe, is to provide a vehicle for retroactive remedies after the constitutional violation has ended and the constitutional peril has ended. Damages compensate the plaintiff for any costs incurred (e.g., Brock hired a lawyer to defend the bullshit state-court proceeding) and to deter defendants from future constitutional misconduct (not getting away with an attempted violation will not deter--that officer may say "oh well, it didn't work that time, maybe it will work next time"). Addendum: We also should take issue with how Gerrard minimizes this as a "squabble" that he must "referee," as opposed to a blatant, if small-value and non-systemic, abuse of government power and attempt to stop a member of the polity from exercising a constitutional liberty.

Imagine a judge writing this about Monroe, which involved some physical misconduct (pushing or kicking Monroe and his family) but no real physical harm; mostly it was about police entering and trashing the house without a warrant and Monroe's arrest and 10-hour detention. He was released from detention and never charged, meaning his rights were "vindicated" and he faced "no current peril." Perhaps Fourth Amendment rights are different and more worthy of retrospective litigation--they affect lives, livelihoods, and liberty. But the First Amendment is a pretty important liberty, even if its monetary value is small.

This is a timely issue because I am waiting to see whether we see § 1983 actions from the various municipal attempts to make people remove "Fuck Biden" signs from their yards and homes. Those actions would fit the category of case Judge Gerrard does not like--their rights were vindicated when the municipal-court actions failed and they face no current peril, so they should take their victory and go home rather than wasting his precious time.

I am preparing to teach Civil Rights this semester and I am working on the next edition of my book. Judge Gerrard's rant will find a place in both.