Links – Constitutional Litigation

Professor Wasserman, of FIU College of Law, has written a paper discussing the details of an independent course on §1983 / constitutional litigation as an off-shoot of the traditional Federal Courts course and how to create a two-court upper-level course sequence. A PDF version is provided here: Civil Rights and Federal Courts: Creating a Two-Course Sequence
For an overview of the Reconstruction Era (referenced in chapter 1)
To learn more about life in prison for both the guards and the inmates, visit the website of the Vera Institute of Justice, Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons (referenced in Ch. 2)
Petition to Decision, a digital archive of papers of the Supreme Court Justices dealing with selected civil rights cases
The Special Litigation Section of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice is charged in part with enforcing federal civil rights statutes in 3 areas: Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons, Conduct of Law Enforcement Agencies, and Religious Exercise of Institutionalized Persons
American Civil Liberties Union Prisoners’ Rights Project
National Police Accountability Project
After the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Castle Rock, Jessica Lenahan (Gonzales) filed a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. This is the Commission’s 2011 decision
Consent decree between Department of Justice, Virgin Islands Attorney General’s Office, and Virgin Islands Police Department, and related documents