Monroe v. Pape
| Monroe v. Pape | |
|---|---|
 42 U.S.C. § 1983 was also meant to give a remedy to parties deprived of constitutional rights, privileges, and immunities by an official's abuse of his position, as the federal remedy was supplementary to any state remedy, and the latter need not have been first sought and refused before the federal one was invoked.[2] | |
| Court membership | |
| |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Douglas, joined by Warren, Black, Clark, Harlan, Brennan, Whittaker, Stewart |
| Concurrence | Harlan, joined by Stewart |
| Dissent | Frankfurter |
| Laws applied | |
Ku Klux Act" of 20 April 1871 (codified at 42 U.S.C. § 1983) | |
Overruled by | |
| Monell v. Department of Social Services of the City of New York, 436 U.S. 658 (1978) (in part) | |
Monroe v. Pape, 365 U.S. 167 (1961), was a
Background
Thirteen police officers of the City of Chicago, Illinois broke into the residence of the Monroe family.[4] The officers roused the parents from their bed and made them stand naked in the living room while other officers ransacked every room of the house, emptying drawers and ripping mattress covers. Mr. Monroe was then taken to the police station and interrogated concerning a two-day-old murder case. He was not allowed to make any telephone calls or to contact a lawyer during his interrogation. He was not charged and was finally released. The police had not acted under authority of a search warrant or an arrest warrant when making the raid.
Plaintiffs Monroe (six
The City of Chicago
Opinion of the Court
The Supreme Court dismissed the complaint against the city itself, finding that Congress had not intended the word "person" in section 1983 to apply to municipalities. This aspect of Monroe was later partially overruled in Monell v. Department of Social Services of the City of New York, 436 U.S. 658 (1978) which held that local governments were "persons" under the act and could face liability under certain circumstances.
However, the Court reversed the lower court's dismissal of the complaint as against the officials. The Court concluded that Congress "meant to give a remedy to parties deprived of constitutional rights, privileges, and immunities by an official's abuse of his position" under section 1983. Furthermore, the federal remedy was available despite Illinois constitutional provisions that provided protections similar to those provided by the Fourteenth Amendment and section 1983. Monroe remains good law for the proposition that the "state action" language of section 1983 is satisfied by the actions of any state actor at any level of state government.
Legal consequences
When Monroe v. Pape was decided, the annotations to 42
This decision not only provided for compensation to injured citizens, but greatly deterred arbitrary actions by state officers. The scope of Monroe v. Pape covers much more than police brutality or racial bias; it has been invoked in cases ranging from improper land use decisions to inappropriate school allocations to wrongful denials of liquor licenses.[5]
See also
- Will v. Michigan Dept. of State Police
- List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 365
References
- ^ "Monroe v. Pape". The Federal Judicial Center. Archived from the original on April 14, 2020. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
- ^ "Law School Case Brief Monroe v. Pape - 365 U.S. 167, 81 S. Ct. 473 (1961)". LexisNxis. Archived from the original on April 14, 2020. Retrieved April 14, 2020.
- ^ 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
- ^ Monroe v. Pape, 365 U.S. 167 (1961).
- ^ 42 U.S.C.A. § 1981 et seq.
External links
- Text of Monroe v. Pape, 365 U.S. 167 (1961) is available from: Cornell Justia Library of Congress Oyez (oral argument audio)