Nahmod Law


Posts cover "42 U.S.C. section 1983, perhaps the most important federal civil rights statute, and on constitutional law (especially the First Amendment), the teaching of constitutional law and other law-related topics."

Author: Sheldon H. Nahmod is a professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law.

Blawg Related Categories: Civil Rights • Constitutional Law • First Amendment • Law Professors • Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago-Kent College of Law • Law Professor

Recent Posts from Nahmod Law


  • Prosecutorial Immunity Revisited: The Pottawattamie County Case

    Pottawattamie County Case in Supreme Court: Argued November 4, 2009 The Supreme Court heard argument in Pottawattamie County v. McGhee, 129 S. Ct. 2002 (2009)(granting certiorari), on November 4, 2009. What follows is a description…

  • Affirmative Action

    Background Affirmative action involving race is a hot button topic  and there may consequently be some student reluctance to engage in meaningful discussion of the issues involved. So I begin class by pointing out the…

  • A Section 1983 Primer (1): History, Purposes and Scope

    This post is intended primarily for those lawyers, law students and members of the public who are not very familiar with 42 U.S.C. section 1983. It is the first in an introductory series on section…

  • Brown v. Board of Education

    Introduction Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), is one of the great constitutional law cases and perhaps the most important Supreme Court decision of the 20th century. I want to describe how…

  • My Position on Supervisory Liability after Iqbal

    Coming Full Circle My very first post–on August 19–involved the Supreme Court’s 2009 decision in Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 129 S. Ct. 1937 (2009), and its implications for supervisory liability under section 1983. I have since…

  • The Dormant Commerce Clause

    Background Dormant Commerce Clause issues arise out of Congressional silence about the particular subject matter being regulated by the state to the possible detriment of interstate commerce.  Since the Commerce Clause confers power only on…

  • Preempting Section 1983 Constitutional Claims: Fitzgerald v. Barnstable School Comm.

    Background It may surprise some readers to learn that there can be cases in which a federal statute is found to preempt § 1983 constitutional claims. This kind of case is different from those cases…

  • The Commerce Clause

    Teaching the Commerce Clause presents challenges and opportunities. What follows are some of them. Challenges: The Long and Winding Road What confronts students immediately are the complicated history and changing doctrines of the Commerce Clause…

  • Qualified Immunity “Order of Battle” Modified

    In Pearson v. Callahan, 129 S. Ct. 808 (2009), the Supreme Court modified its earlier approach to the order in which the two parts of the qualified immunity test are to be addressed by district…

  • Rethinking Section 1983 Malicious Prosecution

    I suggest that malicious prosecution elements and terminology should have little or no place in the analysis of the section 1983 prima facie case. Instead, the primary focus should be on the relevant constitutional violation…