42 U.S.C. § 1983

42 U.S.C. § 1983, popularly known as "Section 1983," is a federal law that allows lawsuits for violations of constitutional rights.

Statutory Language
42 U.S.C. §1983 authorizes lawsuits against state officials, local officials, and sometimes local governments for violating federal constitutional and statutory rights. The text of the statute is as follows:
Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress ....

Supreme Court Standard
Chief Justice William Rehnquist wrote for a nearly unanimous Court:[1]
Section 1983 provides a federal cause of action against any person who, acting under color of state law, deprives another of his federal rights. 42 U.S.C. § 1983. In order to prevail in a § 1983 action for civil damages from a government official performing discretionary functions, the defense of qualified immunity that our cases have recognized requires that the official be shown to have violated "clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known." Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 73 L. Ed. 2d 396, 102 S. Ct. 2727 (1982). Thus a court must first determine whether the plaintiff has alleged the deprivation of an actual constitutional right at all, and if so, proceed to determine whether that right was clearly established at the time of the alleged violation.
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Having met every stipulation required in order to speak to the Called Commission Assembly it is obvious that the County Executive in collusion with the County Attorney has conspired to violate my civil rights of political speech. In so doing the County Executive's misuse of her position and power has violated the most basic of Constitutional Rights of every citizen in this county. It can not go unchallenged.