By Suzi Morales
law briefs
Professor Emerita Karen Blum, JD ’74, is one of the nation’s leading scholars on 42 U.S.C. § 1983, the section of the United States Code that allows individuals to sue state government employees for civil rights violations. So it’s no surprise that when the U.S. House of Representatives held public hearings on proposed legislation affecting Section 1983 Blum was asked to testify.
In June, she appeared remotely before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties. Along with three other legal scholars and practitioners, Blum testified about the possibility of vicarious liability for municipalities and states for civil rights violations by their employees. The vicarious liability concept comes into play when an individual or organization is held financially responsible for the actions of another person or party, for example, a city paying damages for the actions of a police officer.
The topic has received renewed attention after the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020. Blum testified that a Supreme Court decision narrowly interpreting municipal liability under § 1983 —Monell v. Department of Soc. Svcs., 436 U.S. 658 (1978)—was wrongly decided, and that Congress has the authority to impose vicarious liability.
The legislative efforts in the wake of Floyd’s murder include a vicarious liability bill sponsored by Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tennessee, who presided over the recent hearing.
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winter 2023
Photograph by Michael J. Clarke
