CDR: Re: California bars free speech of those cutting deals on votes

Greg Broiles gbroiles at netbox.com
Wed Nov 1 17:26:09 PST 2000


On Wed, Nov 01, 2000 at 06:14:56PM -0500, Harmon Seaver wrote:
> > Actually you can sue a government official (cop, clerk, etc) who
> > violates your rights knowingly, and under 'color of authority'.
> > The trick is convincing a jury that it was suitably malicious
> > and obvious violation.  E.g., false arrest because you look like
> > a suspect won't cut it almost always.
> 
>      Actually, you can do better than that. There's a fed statute (don't
> have the # with me, but do at home if someone needs it) that makes
> violation of your civil rights by *any* public official a federal
> felony. A judge in Tenn. got 32 years in the slammer on this charge a
> few years ago. He took it to the Supremes and lost. 

For civil suits, see 42 USC 1983 and 1985. For criminal actions, see
18 USC 241 and 242; unfortunately, the criminal sections are only of
interest to federal prosecutors. The rest of us need to use civil
suits; against federal agents, it's not a 1983 action, but one under
federal common law, a la _Bivens v. Six Unknown Agents_, a Supreme
court case whose citation eludes me at the moment.

--
Greg Broiles gbroiles at netbox.com
PO Box 897
Oakland CA 94604





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