Nahmod Law

DeShaney in the Circuits (III): The Fifth Circuit En Banc Holds the Line

Sheldon Nahmod — Mon, 20 May 2013 19:52:50 +0000

Affirmative Duty Issues After DeShaney v. Winnebago County, 489 U.S. 189 (1989) I have blogged twice previously about DeShaney affirmative due process duty issues in the circuits. The first time was on August 22, 2011, and the second time was on June 1, 2012. DeShaney issues continue to arise in the circuits in all-too-often tragic […]

Class-of-One Equal Protection Claims: Uncertainty in the Seventh Circuit

Sheldon Nahmod — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 23:29:43 +0000

Class-of-One Equal Protection Claims It may surprise some of you to know that one can have a successful equal protection claim without being a member of a racial, gender, ethnic or other group. In Village of Willowbrook v. Olech, 528 U.S. 562 (2000), a zoning case originating in the Seventh Circuit, the Supreme Court held […]

Certiorari Granted in Madigan v. Levin: An Important Section 1983/ADEA Preclusion Case

Sheldon Nahmod — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 19:13:35 +0000

Certiorari Granted in Madigan v. Levin The Supreme Court granted certiorari on March 18, 2013, in Levin v. Madigan, 692 F.3d 607 (7th Cir.), cert. granted sub nom. Madigan v. Levin, 132 S. Ct. — (2013), an important section 1983/ADEA preclusion case. In Levin, the Seventh Circuit held, as a matter of first impression in […]

All My Posts Through 4-10-13

Sheldon Nahmod — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 19:30:41 +0000

It has been a while since I reorganized all of my posts (including several videos and podcasts) in order to provide greater and more efficient accessibility for readers. There are now more than 100 posts. I consider this reorganization important, and I hope it is also useful to you, because my posts are not intended […]

A Short Video on Equal Protection Basics

Sheldon Nahmod — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 05:23:59 +0000

I blogged on January 31, 2013, as part of my series on the Constitution: Know Your Constitution (4): What Is Equal Protection? The following is a link to a five-minute video I made for Chicago-Kent’s Oyez Project on this same topic. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrClJxXg7EE I hope you find it informative.

A Section 1983 Primer (9): Absolute Judicial Immunity

Sheldon Nahmod — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 16:02:00 +0000

In the seventh in my Section 1983 Primer series, published on October 25, 2012, I blogged about the Supreme Court‘s approach to absolute immunity. I specifically referred to the three categories of absolutely immune defendants–legislators, judges and prosecutors–and also discussed the underlying policy considerations as well as the Court’s functional approach. In the eighth in […]

The Second Amendment and Gun Control: Unanswered Questions

Sheldon Nahmod — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 19:24:15 +0000

Background As most everyone knows by now, in District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008), the Supreme Court (5-4, opinion by Justice Scalia) for the first time found an individual Second Amendment right to possess a handgun in one’s home for self-defense. Accordingly, it struck down a District of Columbia prohibition on the […]

A Section 1983 Primer (8): Absolute Legislative Immunity

Sheldon Nahmod — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 20:13:50 +0000

In the seventh of my Section 1983 Primer series, published on October 25, 2012, I blogged about the Supreme Court‘s approach to absolute immunity under section 1983. I specifically referred to the three categories of absolutely immune defendants–legislators, judges and prosecutors–and also discussed the underlying policy considerations and the Court’s functional approach. In this post […]

Know Your Constitution (4): What Is Equal Protection?

Sheldon Nahmod — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 15:50:41 +0000

This is the fourth in a series of posts about the Constitution that is intended for a general audience. Previous posts introduced the Constitution and then rebutted some commonly held myths about the Constitution. Background The equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits states and local governments from denying persons the equal protection of […]

“Section 1983 Is Born”: A Working Paper

Sheldon Nahmod — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 20:14:18 +0000

I have written an article about the birth of section 1983 in the Supreme Court that I hope to have published this year. The article is entitled: Section 1983 Is Born: The Supreme Court Stories of Tenney v. Brandhove and Monroe v. Pape. It is available as a Working Paper on SSRN and can be […]