Thursday, January 08, 2004

No qualified immunity for state bar official picketed at his house by plaintiff

Via this How Appealing post, in the case of Dean v. Byerly, the Sixth Circuit in an opinion by Judge Moore, with Judge Daughtrey concurring, held that the defendant, a lawyer for the State Bar of Michigan, was not even entitled to qualified immunity on claims that he violated the constitutional rights of the plaintiff, a frustrated applicant for admission to the bar, who had engaged in picketing outside the front lawn of the defendant's house. Judge Sutton dissented, and I think he has the right of the thing, when he wrote that "it becomes difficult to understand why Mr. Dean ought to be allowed to make a $2 million federal case out of this incident."

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