Deck 11: Constitutional Violations II Other Remedies Against Official Misconduct

Question 1

According to Pinder v. Johnson , involving a lawsuit by a mother against a police officer and others for the death of her children in a fire:

A)public officials owe private citizens the right to protect them from one another.
B)a violation of clearly established law is not recoverable.
C)the due process clause does not require government actors to affirmatively protect life.
D)an affirmative duty to protect life can never arise on the part of government officials.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Not all states have adopted which doctrine?

A)doctrine of sovereign immunity
B)doctrine of official immunity
C)doctrine of respondeat superior
D)doctrine of tort action

Answer 2

C

Question 3

How do v ictims of government violations of individuals' constitutional rights sue for damages?

A)by becoming plaintiffs in a criminal action
B)by becoming plaintiffs in a civil action
C)by becoming plaintiffs in an administrative action
D)by becoming plaintiffs in a regulatory action

Answer 3

B

Question 4

What kind of immunity do judges have from civil lawsuits for actions they take while performing their official judicial duties?

A)official immunity
B)functional immunity
C)sovereign immunity
D)absolute immunity

Question 5

The U.S. government can be sued for the constitutional torts of federal law enforcement officers who have the authority to search and arrest under:

A)the Bivens rule.
B)the Federal Tort Claims Act.
C)§ 1983.
D)state tort law.

Question 6

According to SCOTUS, there is an exception to the no-duty-to-protect rule called the special-relationship exception. That special relationship is:

A)dependent on the crime committed.
B)custody.
C)while a suspect is being interrogated.
D)when a warrant is being served.

Question 7

All of the following are stages of internal review, except:

A)investigation.
B)arbitration.
C)deliberation.
D)disposition.

Question 8

SCOTUS has put which of the following limitations on § 1983 actions?

A)They can only be brought for negligent acts.
B)They can only be brought against government bodies.
C)They can only be brought against senior government administrators.
D)They can only be brought for deliberate acts.

Question 9

The legal doctrine of holding employers liable for wrongs committed by employees who are acting in the scope of employment is known as:

A)no duty to protect.
B)sovereign immunity.
C)color of law.
D)respondeat superior .

Question 10

What are lawsuits against individual law enforcement officers called?

A)Bivens actions
B)Gaines actions
C)respondeat actions
D)government actions

Question 11

According to Pinder v. Johnson, involving a lawsuit by a mother against police officers and others for the death of her children in a fire:

A)the due process clauses create an official duty to protect life.
B)a duty to protect life can arise when the state restrains citizens from acting on their own behalf.
C)an affirmative duty to protect life can never arise on the part of government officials.
D)government action can never create a duty to protect life.

Question 12

Who are always protected by absolute immunity from civil lawsuits while they are performing their official duties?

A)judges
B)prosecutors
C)juries
D)police officers

Question 13

The most common mechanism for holding police officers accountable for their misconduct is:

A)a tort lawsuit.
B)a § 1983 lawsuit.
C)a letter of complaint.
D)administrative review and discipline.

Question 14

According to the defense of official immunity, an officer is personally liable:

A)for any unintentional misconduct while on duty.
B)for any willful or malicious misconduct.
C)for any failure to act while exercising personal discretion.
D)for exercising personal judgment.

Question 15

Bivens actions are:

A)constitutional tort actions against federal officers.
B)prohibited against officials who act under color of authority.
C)not required to show unreasonable legal action by the defendants.
D)banned against federal officials.

Question 16

The first U.S. _______________ case was DeShaney v. Winnebago County Department of Social Services (1989).

A)civil action
B)duty-to-protect
C)limited liability
D)strict liability

Question 17

What must the prosecution prove to charge police officers with a crime?

A)criminal success
B)criminal suspicion
C)criminal intent
D)criminal conspiracy

Question 18

Internal review of police misconduct involves:

A)review by civilians.
B)review by special officers in the department.
C)review by a special master appointed by the court.
D)review by officers in another police department.

Question 19

The major objection to internal review of police misconduct is that:

A)police officers do not trust the officers conducting the investigation of misconduct.
B)police departments have to divert resources away from fighting crime.
C)the police should not be policing themselves.
D)external review is less expensive and better received by the media.

Question 20

Prosecutors enjoy different types of immunity, depending on the type of action they are engaged in at the time of the misconduct. What is this type of immunity called?

A)absolute immunity
B)vicarious official immunity
C)functional immunity
D)qualified immunity

Question 21

Research indicates that:

A)civilian review procedures rarely sustain citizens' complaints about the police.
B)civilian review procedures overwhelmingly sustain citizens' complaints about the police.
C)civilian review boards refuse to hear many of the complaints filed against the police.
D)most civilian review boards are allowed to take disciplinary action against police officers.

Question 22

What kind of immunity do prosecutors have from civil lawsuits?

A)absolute immunity
B)qualified immunity
C)sovereign immunity
D)functional immunity

Question 23

When the government takes people into custody against their will, the government:

A)does not have a duty to protect them from being injured by other private persons.
B)created danger by taking them into custody, so it must protect them.
C)must protect them, because a special relationship has been created with the people in custody, who cannot protect themselves.
D)has the duty to protect the people in custody only from harm by government officers.

Question 24

Internal review consists of four consecutive stages: intake, investigation, deliberation, and:

A)disposition.
B)conclusion.
C)resolution.
D)conviction.

Question 25

Victims of unconstitutional conduct by police officers can bring civil actions to collect damages for injuries suffered. Who can the victims sue for damages?

A)the individual officers
B)the officers' superiors
C)law enforcement agencies
D)Any or all of these can be sued.

Question 26

Police are rarely charged with, or convicted of, criminal misconduct.

Question 27

According to the defense of _______________, individual officers can't be held personally liable for their official actions if the actions meet the test of objective legal reasonableness.

A)qualified immunity
B)good faith
C)the Bivens umbrella
D)the law enforcement exception

Question 28

In Beltran v. City of El Paso (2004), the Court ruled that:

A)a 911 operator had an affirmative duty to protect a mother and her daughter from their husband and father, who murdered them.
B)a 911 operator had no affirmative duty to protect a mother and daughter from their husband and father, who murdered them.
C)the 911 operator violated the due process rights of the murdered mother and daughter, due to the operator's failure to protect them.
D)the 911 operator violated the constitutional rights of the murdered mother and daughter, due to the operator conveying untruthful information.

Question 29

The Federal Tort Claims Act:

A)waives sovereign immunity and allows lawsuits against the federal government for the constitutional torts of its officers.
B)allows citizens to submit damage claims resulting from constitutional torts to a panel charged with deciding if the claim should be paid.
C)upholds the government's sovereign immunity from lawsuit.
D)only allows lawsuits against the individual officers involved.

Question 30

Most officers' misconduct might also be a crime.

Question 31

Which legal doctrine prohibits people from suing the government without its consent?

A)qualified immunity
B)absolute immunity
C)official immunity
D)sovereign immunity

Question 32

External civilian review results in more charges against police officers being sustained than internal review.

Question 33

Which of the following is statistically the single greatest cause of injury to women in America?

A)homicide by strangers
B)domestic violence
C)drinking and driving
D)sexual assault

Question 34

Heightening the possibility of a successful Bivens action requires the plaintiff to prove that an officer was acting under the color of the law, and that the officer:

A)willfully neglected the person ' s request for help because of higher priority requests.
B)used reasonable force to arrest but injured the person nonetheless.
C)deprived the person of a constitutional right.
D)produced an observable physical injury to the person.

Question 35

What is the name given to the group inside the police department that reviews police misconduct?

A)the internal affairs unit
B)the internal civilian review board
C)the external civilian review unit
D)the misconduct review unit

Question 36

Prosecutors have qualified immunity for their conduct as advocates in the judicial phase of the criminal process.

Question 37

Research about the effectiveness of civilian review boards shows that:

A)they are very effective in investigating police misconduct.
B)civilians are not well equipped to evaluate police misconduct.
C)it is difficult to measure their effectiveness.
D)most large cities do not use civilian review, so data is lacking.

Question 38

If police officers honestly believe they are enforcing the law and not committing a crime, then they are not criminally guilty.

Question 39

Police officers and government agencies cannot be sued for failing to stop private people from inflicting injuries on others. This is known as the:

A)no-special-relationship rule.
B)no-affirmative-duty-to-protect rule.
C)state-did-not-create-the-danger rule.
D)avoid-danger rule.

Question 40

Courts that have allowed the state-created-danger exception apply it in one of two ways. The first way requires a special relationship between the government and the victim, plus:

A)a plaintiff who committed only a minor offense.
B)an affirmative defense.
C)a danger created by the state.
D)a danger created by the plaintiff.

Question 41

Under the doctrine of sovereign immunity, governments are always immune from lawsuits.

Question 42

The defense of vicarious official immunity means that police departments and local governments can claim the official immunity of their employees.

Question 43

The government and its officers have a constitutional duty to protect individuals from other private individuals who violate their rights.

Question 44

In Town of Castle Rock v. Gonzalez (2005), the Court ruled that individuals have a constitutional right to have restraining orders enforced.

Question 45

All states allow citizens to bring suits against them for the constitutional violations of their officers.

Question 46

Plaintiffs can sue individual state officers in two kinds of actions: _______________ tort lawsuits and federal U.S. Civil Rights Act lawsuits.

Question 47

Under the doctrine of respondeat superior , state and local governments and their agencies are liable for their employees' torts, if the employees committed the torts during the course of their employment.

Question 48

Civil Rights Act actions are lawsuits against individuals in _______________ or _______________ law enforcement for violating people's constitutional rights.

Question 49

Suits under the Civil Rights Act are commonly called _______________ _______________.

Question 50

State and local governments are responsible for the torts of their employees, if the torts are committed during the employees' employment, under the doctrine of _______________ _______________.

Question 51

Lawsuits against individual federal law enforcement officers for constitutional violations are called _______________ _______________.

Question 52

In order to win a § 1983 lawsuit against a police officer, the plaintiff must prove that the officer was acting under color of state law when the officer engaged in the behavior that is the subject of the suit.

Question 53

_______________ remedies are used to discipline public officials to remedy misconduct.

Question 54

Most police believe that internal affairs units are necessary.

Question 55

Under the state-created-danger exception to the no-duty-to-protect rule, a law enforcement officer can be held liable under § 1983 if the officer's actions created a special danger to the general public.

Question 56

The special-relationship exception is based on the special relationship that exists between the government and persons in its _______________.

Question 57

A person who brings a suit against the government asking for a remedy is called the _______________.

Question 58

Reviews of complaints against police officers by participants who themselves are not police officers is called _______________ _______________.

Question 59

A prosecutor's appearance in court in support of an application for a search warrant is protected by qualified immunity.

Question 60

_______________ actions are brought by plaintiffs suing defendants to collect money owed or damages for injuries suffered.

Question 61

The most common accountability procedure for all kinds of police misconduct is administrative review and discipline outside the courts. Define the two types of administrative review, and discuss any differences between the two types.

Question 62

Identify the two elements that plaintiffs in § 1983 actions against state and local law enforcement officers have to prove. Identify and describe the two limits placed by SCOTUS on § 1983 actions against state and local officers.

Question 63

Summarize the Bivens v. Six Unnamed FBI Agents case, and explain its significance.

Question 64

Identify the two elements of the qualified immunity defense, and explain why the test is so easy for officers to pass.

Question 65

Identify and describe the differences between the two kinds of state civil lawsuits that can be brought against individual state officers.