This student-focused treatise provides a concise, accessible, comprehensive, and readable overview of the doctrine, policy, history, and theory of civil rights and constitutional litigation under Section 1983 and its Bivens federal counterpart. The book is written for courses on Civil Rights Litigation and Federal Courts; it can function as a primary assignment, as an assigned or recommended case and statutory supplement to a casebook or case materials, and as an additional study guide for students wanting additional background, context, and synthesis of the material.
Q. Why this book, and why now?
This book is entwined with my Civil Rights course. It began as a written narrative version of that course, designed to help students synthesize cases and to provide problems for each subject. It has morphed into the sole text for that course, a complete summary discussion of the doctrine, theory, and policy of civil rights litigation, with an emphasis on the problems for class discussions. This is the second edition (the first was published in 2012). The new edition reflects the evolution of my course and my experience teaching from the book. It incorporates a flurry of recent Supreme Court decisions on subjects such as immunity of executive officials and availability of damages claims against federal officials.
Q. Who should read this book?
The book works with the stand-alone Civil Rights course and with a Federal Courts course that covers civil rights litigation (as many do). The book can be a primary or secondary assigned book (which is how I use it) or an optional supplement that helps students grasp the material. I hope lawyers working in the area will find it useful in providing the foundation for their research and their pursuit of these cases.
Q. What is the most important takeaway you hope your readers gain from this book?
My goal was to provide a complete, sharp, and readable discussion of the doctrine, theory, and policy of civil rights litigation, one that was friendly to student readers and sufficiently rigorous to form the basis for a law school course.
Howard M. Wasserman joined the College of Law faculty in 2003. Professor Wasserman teaches civil procedure, evidence, federal courts, civil rights, and First Amendment; he writes about the freedom of speech, the role of procedure and jurisdiction in public-law and civil-rights litigation, and recently on baseball’s Infield Fly Rule.