Justices overturn 5th Circuit ruling
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has reinstated a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by two Shelby, Mississippi, police officers who said they were fired for refusing to ignore an alderman’s criminal activity.
The ruling, issued by the court Monday, overturned a decision of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, which sided with the town of Shelby against Officers Tracey L. Johnson and David James Jr.
The officers brought the lawsuit under Section 1983 of the U.S. Code, which is intended to allow individuals to sue when they believe their constitutional rights have been infringed. The law has been used to sue for damages over a multitude of wrongs committed by government officials.
The city sought dismissal of the lawsuit.
The 5th Circuit and U.S. District Judge Michael Mills in Oxford, Mississippi, said the lawsuit should be dismissed because the officers failed to prove that a federal right was violated and that the alleged violation was a proximate or legal cause of the damages they allegedly suffered.
The U.S. Supreme Court disagreed, finding that the officers offered facts sufficient to show that their claim had plausibility.
The justices said the officers “stated simply, concisely and directly events that, they alleged, entitled them to damages from the city.”
The justices said the officers informed the city of factual basis for their complaint and didn’t need to do anything else to succeed against a motion for dismissal.
