Most Common Civil Rights Violations

Civil rights violations can be based on violations of constitutional or statutory rights.  Some statutory civil rights violations may include discrimination based on a person’s protected characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, gender, or religion, or on violations of other rights.  When a civil rights violation is based on the violation of a constitutional right, very often the perpetrator is a government actor, since the United States Constitution generally protects people from certain government action.

This blog mainly addresses civil rights violations based on violations of constitutional rights.

Civil Rights Violations of Constitutional Rights

The most common civil rights claims based on violations of constitutional rights are usually committed by law enforcement or jail staff.

Common constitutional violations by law enforcement officers on the street include:

• Unreasonable seizures in violation of the Fourth Amendment, such as unlawful arrest without a warrant or probable cause; 
• Unreasonable seizures in violation of the Fourth Amendment, such as the use of excessive force in the course of an arrest or other seizure, including police shootings, positional or restraint asphyxia, and non-lethal levels of unnecessary force inflicted by fighting, use of tasers, police dogs, and other less-lethal weapons;
• Unreasonable searches in violation of the Fourth Amendment, such as law enforcement SWAT raids without a proper warrant and probable cause, or suspicionless searches of one’s person, vehicle, or home.

Common constitutional violations in county jails and state prisons include:

• Correctional officers’ deliberate indifference to the safety of inmates, either from risk of harm by other inmates or to inmates’ medical and psychiatric needs;
• Correctional officers’ use of excessive and unnecessary force against inmates;
• Correctional medical staff’s deliberate indifference to inmates’ serious medical and psychiatric needs, resulting in medical injuries, suicide, and death.

Where those constitutional violations happen in jails to people who are awaiting trial and have not been convicted (pretrial detainees), they are violations of the Fourteenth Amendment, which prohibits deprivation of life, liberty, or property by the government without due process of law.  Where those constitutional violations happen in prisons to people who are serving sentences after conviction, they are violations of the Eighth Amendment which forbids cruel and unusual punishment.

Hire a California Civil Rights Attorney

Haddad & Sherwin LLP have a long track record of winning civil rights cases with results that include large settlements and verdicts for their clients, groundbreaking legal rulings, and important reforms to prevent future harms.  Haddad & Sherwin LLP handle only a unique subset of Section 1983 cases: cases where a person was killed or permanently, catastrophically injured in California by law enforcement or county jail misconduct.  If you would like to consult with experienced civil rights lawyers because your loved one was killed by police or died in a California county jail, then contact the attorneys at Haddad & Sherwin LLP.  If your civil rights were seriously violated, but without death and without permanent, catastrophic injury, you could try the list of civil rights attorneys here.