II. Reconstruction Background

• Library: Sword and Shield: A Practical Approach to Section 1983 Litigation (ABA) (2015 Ed.)

II. RECONSTRUCTION BACKGROUND

Section 1983, which has its origins in the post-Civil War Reconstruction Era, is the current version of section 1 of the Civil Rights Act of 1871.¹³ The act was a broad proposal, introduced on March 28, 1871, by Representative Samuel Shellabarger at the request of the Grant administration to address the state of lawlessness throughout much of the South¹⁴ and to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment.¹⁵ Section 1 created a civil remedy to enforce federal constitutional provisions against state or local officials who violated the "rights, privileges, or immunities" of persons within the United States.¹⁶ Ironically, in light of its current prominence, § 1983 was a minor, and not heavily debated,¹⁷ provision of a more far-reaching statute designed to restore federal supremacy in the face of a widespread breakdown of law and order in the Southern and border states.¹⁸

Congress enacted the predecessor to § 1983 during the period that marked the sharpest permanent expansion of federal court jurisdiction in the nation's history,¹⁹ and the Supreme Court in Mitchum v. Foster²⁰ characterized § 1983 as a product of a vast transformation from the concepts of federalism that had prevailed in the late 18th century. . . . The very purpose of § 1983 was to interpose the federal courts between the States and the people, as guardians of the people's federal rights—to protect the people from unconstitutional action...