Archive for the ‘Civil Rights’ Category

Iqbal and the Altered Landscape for § 1983 Litigation

For a primer on the case that single-handedly rocked the legal world and altered the Federal Rules of Civil Procedures with the swipe of the pen, take a look at this great article by Adam Liptak. For federal practitioners around the country, especially those practicing employment and civil rights law, a daily question we face when receiving a call from a potential client is… how do I prove that to withstand Iqbal? The standard created by Iqbal requires a complaint to state “plausible” allegations, unlike the “short and plaint statement” required by FRCP 8. The Court, citing to its predecessor Twombly, stated that claims needed to nudge “across the line […]