Personnel Administrator of Mass. v. Feeney

1 Analyses of this case by attorneys

  1. Did the Supreme Court wipe out supervisory liability in Section 1983 cases? It sure looks that way

    Bergstein & Ullrich, LLPMay 26, 2009

    Id.That language in Colon v. Coughlin has been cited frequently in the Second Circuit. Before the Supreme Court in Iqbal rejected the Complaint's allegations against Mueller and Ashcroft on grounds that the allegations were not plausible under the new standard outlined in Twombly v. Bell Atlantic, 550 U.S. 544 (2008), it paused to reject the Complaint's allegations that these defendants were liable because of their "knowledge and acquiescence in their subordinates' use of discriminatory criteria to make classification decisions among detainees."Citing a few of its precedents which hold that constitutional discrimination claims require "discriminatory purpose," the Court breathes new life into Personnel Administrator of Mass. v. Feeney, 442 U.S. 256 (1979), which held that purposeful discrimination requires more than "intent as volition or intent as awareness of consequences" and that the decisionmaker must undertake a course of action "because of, not merely in spite of, the action's adverse effects upon an identifiable group." The Feeney precedent, together with Monell, means that supervisory liability cannot attach under Section 1983.