Public Accountability’s 2023, Wrapped
Here’s what we’ve been doing with your help.
Friends,
It's been a busy year here at Public Accountability. In the last 12 months we've served more clients, won more cases, and advanced the cause of public accountability more than ever before. And your support has been vital to our efforts. I want to tell you a bit about our year, and then I'm going to ask you to help us continue to expand rights and remedies next year.
Fighting to Keep Bivens Alive
Bivens is the doctrine that lets you sue federal agents. (See our detailed writeup here.) Problem is, the Supreme Court has been cutting away at Bivens for decades, and in late 2022 the Ninth Circuit issued a decision that would have killed it entirely. So we opened 2023 by asking the court to rehear the case en banc. We didn't get the rehearing, but we did get the court to delete the worst bits and issue an amended opinion. So Bivens lives to fight another day. And we're carrying on the fight: We just finished briefing a case arguing that federal prisoners can sue prison staff who refuse to treat their injuries.
Defending Parents and Teachers from MAGA Activists
Far-right extremists took over the Newberg School Board in Newberg, OR, and banned Black Lives Matter and Pride symbols. Some parents and teachers, concerned about this new and radical direction in their schools, joined a Facebook group to talk about holding their elected school-board directors accountable. In retaliation, the board’s conservative majority sued four parents and teachers. We teamed up with the ACLU of Oregon and prominent local civil-rights lawyers to fight back, and in July we won a complete victory. Notch one for free speech.
No, You Can't Force Prisoners into a Covid Party
Do prisoners have a clearly established right against being forced to participate in a “Covid party”? We think so—but the State of Connecticut disagreed. In April 2020, our client was forced to move from a cell block where everyone was healthy to one that was in the middle of an active Covid outbreak. He caught Covid—the original, extremely dangerous variant—and nearly died. We argued that that amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. In October, we notched another complete victory: The court ruled that the warden violated his rights and it denied her request for qualified immunity.
By the Numbers
Those are just a few of the cases we worked on this year. Here's the rest of the scorecard:
14 clients served
11 briefs filed
3 oral arguments presented
2 wins (and one decision pending—we could still be 3 for 3!)
A Request
The work we do is critical. Every day, police officers, prison guards, and other state actors abuse their power and violate people's constitutional rights. They bet that people can't fight back, and too often they're right. But Public Accountability is there—to help you fight back, to hold officials accountable, and to change the law so they can't keep getting away with it. So if you can, please support our work and donate.
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Thanks for reading, and happy holidays.
In gratitude and solidarity,
Athul K. Acharya
Founder & Executive Director, Public Accountability
Our most critical case yet.
A police officer shot our client in the eye. A jury said she was owed a million dollars. And then the judge took it away.
Eleaqia today, three years later.
We just filed the opening salvo in a truly horrifying case. Eleaqia McCrae, a young college student and track star, was peacefully protesting the murder of George Floyd when a Salem police officer started firing rubber bullets at her and her friends' heads. He hit McCrae in the eye, permanently damaged her vision, and ended her athletic career. She'll never jump competitively again.
It gets worse.
After nearly two years of litigation, she was able to tell her story to a jury. So was the officer. The jury believed Elea and awarded her more than a million dollars in damages. And then, after all that, the district judge decided to give the officer qualified immunity. She dismissed the case. In effect: Never mind what the jury said, Elea, you're getting bupkis.
Qualified immunity has been a colossal disaster of public policy. And this case demonstrates why. If an officer can wriggle out of accountability in a case this clear cut, what rational lawyer would ever take a civil-rights case? What hope is there for people whose stories are less cut-and-dried?
This is why Public Accountability exists. We're fighting to get Elea back the money damages the jury said she was owed. Just as importantly, we're fighting to get her the accountability she is undoubtedly owed. And we're also fighting to make sure this case doesn't stand—to set a precedent so that next time, the district judge doesn't even have the option to wipe out the jury's decision. You can read our brief here.
That's not all we've been up to over the last few months. Here are a few of the other cases in which we've been working to protect and expand civil rights:
Hannah v. State of Oregon. Oregon’s public-defense system is in a full-blown crisis. It’s underfunded, understaffed, and barely functioning. People sit in jail for weeks and months without a trial—their cases paused indefinitely—because the state can’t find them a lawyer. Some of them sued the state, seeking a simple declaration that the state had violated their constitutional rights. A trial judge dismissed their claim, saying they lacked standing. We’re got two primary briefs in this appeal, one on jurisdiction that you can read here, and one on the merits that’s still in progress.
Eaton v. Estabrook. When our client agreed to act as a liaison between officers and protesters during a march against police brutality, she didn’t expect to become a victim of police brutality. But a rogue officer with an axe to grind tackled her and threw her to the ground, and the district court granted him qualified immunity. We’ve asked the Second Circuit to take a second look. Read our brief here.
Hurst v. Dayton. The “Bivens” doctrine is what lets you sue federal agents for violating your constitutional rights. Without it, federal agents could beat protesters, assault prisoners, and intimidate journalists with absolute impunity. (For a more detailed explanation, see our writeup here.) Problem is, the Supreme Court has been cutting away at Bivens for decades. But it’s always said that the “core” of Bivens—which includes lawsuits for prisoner mistreatment—remains intact. In this lawsuit, we’re asking the Ninth Circuit to confirm that our client, an inmate in federal prison, can sue a prison nurse who refused to treat his injuries. Read our brief here.
If you've made it this far, you can see why the work we do is critical. Every day, police officers, prison guards, and other state actors abuse their power and violate people's constitutional rights. They bet the people can't fight back, and often, judges see to it that they're right. But Public Accountability is there—to fight back, to hold the wrongdoers accountable, and to change the law so they know they won't get away with it. If you can, please support our work and donate.