In a Supreme Court term not light on law enforcement cases City and County of San Francisco v. Sheehan was the most important police case of the term. Alas, we will have to wait for another day for the Supreme Court to decide whether Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires police officers to accommodate suspects who are armed, violent, and mentally ill when bringing them into custody. The Court did held that the officers in this case were entitled to qualified immunity. Continue reading
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Supreme Court and Local Governments: What Will the Court Accept Next?
While the Supreme Court’s next term officially begins on October 6, its “long conference” is September 29. At this conference the Court will review a backlog of petitions that have been piling up over the summer. SCOTUSblog complies a list of petitions that it thinks have a reasonable chance of being granted. Eight of the petitions the Court will consider either during the “long conference” or at a later conference directly involve or impact local governments.
Public nuisance. A Brighton, Michigan, ordinance presumes that an unsafe structure will be demolished as a public nuisance if the cost of repairing it exceeds its value. The owner has no right to repair the structure. Brighton property owners wanted to repair two unsafe structures even though Brighton estimated it would cost almost double the property value do so. In Bonner v. City of Brighton, Michigan, the property owners claim the ordinance violates substantive and procedural due process.
Employment. Under federal employment law to bring a discrimination claim a plaintiff must prove that an “adverse action” occurred, and to bring a retaliation claim a plaintiff must prove a “materially adverse action” occurred. The question in Kalamazoo County Road Commission v. Deleon is whether either can be proven when an employer grants an employee’s request for a job transfer (and the new position turns out to be less desirable than the old position). The International Municipal Lawyers Association (IMLA) filed an amicus brief in this case. Continue reading
Webinar on Town of Greece Decision
On May 28th, IMLA, the State and Local Legal Center, and the National Conference of State Legislatures will host a free webinar on the Greece decision. Details and registration are here.
Supreme Court Denies Cert in Immigration Case
This morning, 
the Supreme Court denied certiorari in Frederick County v. Santos, No. 13-706, a case involving whether local officials may arrest persons for immigration violations that we discussed here. See additional coverage from The Frederick News-Post here.
(Photo courtesy of Flickr by Mark Fischer, creative-commons license, no changes made).
Monday Morning Review: Local Governments in the Federal Appellate Courts
Here are last week’s published decisions involving local governments:
Seventh Circuit
- Wilson v. Cook County, No. 13-1464 (Feb. 10, 2014) (affirming summary judgment for County on equal-protection, due-process, and Title VII claims arising out of alleged sexual-harassment in the workplace).
Ninth Circuit