III. Section 1983 Plaintiffs

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

III. SECTION 1983 PLAINTIFFS

By its terms, § 1983 authorizes the assertion of a claim for relief by "any citizen of the United States or other person" who has been deprived of a federally protected right under color of state law. Under this broad language, the courts have allowed a wide range of plaintiffs to sue under § 1983. The right to sue under § 1983 is not limited to U.S. citizens. Legal and even illegal aliens are entitled to sue under § 1983.62 Nor is the right to sue limited to individuals. Both for-profit and nonprofit organizations may sue under § 1983.63 However, the Supreme Court held that an American Indian tribe that sought to vindicate its sovereign status was not entitled to sue under § 1983.64 The Court reasoned that "Section 1983 was designed to secure private rights against government encroachment, not to advance a sovereign's prerogative to withhold evidence relevant to a criminal investigation."65

Whether the plaintiff is a "person" entitled to sue under § 1983 is a question separate and distinct from whether the plaintiff has standing to sue. For example, Michael Newdow, who sought to challenge the constitutionality of a school policy requiring teacher-led recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, was clearly a "person" entitled to sue under § 1983, but the Supreme Court held that he did not have standing to challenge the constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance.66 There is extensive decisional law governing standing to sue in federal court. This decisional law establishes three Article III standing requirements: (1) actual or threatened injury, (2) fairly traced to the defendant's conduct, and (3) a sufficient likelihood that the injury will be redressed by a favorable decision on...

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