Professor Mark Brown’s newest book, “Section 1983 Litigation,” was released in January by LexisNexis as part of its Civil Rights and Strategy Series.
Professor Brown’s book is current through the end of the Supreme Court’s 2023 Term, and will be updated yearly to reflect any new developments. Though designed with practicing lawyers in mind, Professor Brown says it should prove useful to anyone interested in constitutional law and litigation, be they students, law clerks, legislators or judges.
The book’s focus is on the basic building blocks of constitutional and federal statutory suits against states, municipalities, and their officials. Pleading suits against proper defendants (those who act “under color of” state law) in either their “official” or “personal” capacities, for example, as well as addressing the various defenses (e.g., qualified immunity) that can be raised. But the book’s 230+ pages also tackles more complex problems, including abstention doctrines, exhaustion requirements and the risks that can accompany multiple and split proceedings, whether parallel or seriatim. The nuts and bolts of attorney-fee-shifting are also addressed in the book’s last chapter. In sum, Professor Brown’s book succinctly covers all of what plaintiffs’ and defendants’ lawyers should know about section 1983 litigation.
Professor Brown holds the Capital University Law School’s Newton D. Baker/Baker & Hostetler Chair and is its most senior faculty member, having taught courses on Constitutional Law and Constitutional Litigation at law schools across the country for almost 40 years. During his career he has litigated dozens of constitutional cases across the United States (including the in and before the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eleventh Circuits) as well as writing about section 1983 in many professional journals (including the Cornell Law Review, the Iowa Law Review, the University of Illinois Law Review, and the Boston College Law Review).
Professor's Brown's book can be ordered on the LexisNexis store.