On December 20, 2018, Livingston County Circuit Court Judge Matthew Fitton granted summary judgment in favor Livingston County in an employment discrimination case, Kahinde v. County of Livingston, Case No. 16 L 7, brought under the Illinois Human Rights Act. The plaintiff was a county information technology director who claimed that he was fired because of…
Read MoreLast month, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Lozman v. City of Riviera Beach, Florida. Lozman presents a conflict between a longstanding principle of Fourth Amendment law and an equally venerable strain of First Amendment law. This conflict has divided lower courts and is critical to police and municipalities in today’s environment of heightened…
Read MoreU.S. District Court Judge Sue E. Meyerscough granted summary judgment in favor of Vermillion County Jail and jail nurses in Jones v. Hartshorn, et al., No. 15-cv-2032. Inmate Walter Jones claimed that defendants were deliberately indifferent to a litany of medical conditions while he was detained at the jail in 2011 and 2013. Judge Myerscough…
Read MoreBecause of the breadth and scope of the federal Civil Rights Act, citizens frequently attempt to assert constitutional claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for all sorts of wrongs – even mundane matters which would appear at first blush not to involve a citizen’s constitutional rights. There are many reasons why citizens attempt to invoke §…
Read MoreOn September 18, 2017, the Seventh Circuit in Orlowski v. Milwaukee County, 872 F.3d 417 (7th Cir. 2017), reversed a District Court that had previously awarded summary judgment for a Milwaukee County Corrections Officer and Sergeant in a claim brought by the Estate of an inmate that died of a methadone overdose in the Milwaukee…
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