I 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 7115 

To expand the scope of section 1979 of the Revised Statutes, and for other 

purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 4, 2020 

Mr. VEASEY introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To expand the scope of section 1979 of the Revised Statutes, 

and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Restoration of Civil 

5 Rights Act of 2019’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 

8 (1) Section 1 of the Act entitled ‘‘An Act to en9 force the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment 

10 to the Constitution of the United States and for 


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1 other purposes’’ (commonly known as the ‘‘Civil 

2 Rights Act of 1871’’), approved April 20, 1871 (17 

3 Stat. 13, chapter 22) was enacted by Congress to 

4 provide a Federal forum to which a civil cause of ac5 tion could be brought by any citizen of the United 

6 States or other person within the jurisdiction there7 of, for the deprivation of any right, privilege or im8 munity secured by the Constitution or by Federal 

9 statute. 

10 (2) Congress was granted the authority to enact 

11 the Civil Rights Act of 1871 by sections 1 and 5 of 

12 the Fourteenth Amendment of Constitution of the 

13 United States. 

14 (3) Popularly known as the ‘‘Anti-Ku Klux 

15 Klan Act’’, the statute was enacted to provide a 

16 Federal remedy to fight the ‘‘Klan’s reign of terror’’ 

17 in the southern states, as reflected in President 

18 Grant’s message to Congress on March 23, 1871, 

19 which stated that the Klan had ‘‘render[ed] life and 

20 property insecure’’ and that the ‘‘power to correct 

21 these evils [was] beyond the control of state authori22 ties’’. 

23 (4) A Joint Committee from each House of 

24 Congress addressed the problem, and the Commit25 tee’s product was the Civil Rights Act of 1871, from 


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1 which section 1979 of the Revised Statutes was de2 rived (42 U.S.C. 1983), which reads as follows: 

3 ‘‘Every person who, under color of any statute, ordi4 nance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or 

5 Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or 

6 causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United 

7 States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof 

8 to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immu9 nities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be 

10 liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit 

11 in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress, ex12 cept that in any action brought against a judicial of13 ficer for an act or omission taken in such officer’s 

14 judicial capacity, injunctive relief shall not be grant15 ed unless a declaratory decree was violated or de16 claratory relief was unavailable. For the purposes of 

17 this section, any Act of Congress applicable exclu18 sively to the District of Columbia shall be considered 

19 to be a statute of the District of Columbia.’’. 

20 (5) Decisions of the United States Supreme 

21 Court, beginning with Monell v. New York City De22 partment of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658 (1978), 

23 have held that governmental entities are not respon24 sible or liable for damages caused by their agents or 

25 employees who, in the course and scope of their emVerDate Sep 11 2014 21:05 Jun 27, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7115.IH H7115

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1 ployment, violate the constitutional rights of citizens 

2 and other persons within the jurisdiction of the 

3 United States. 

4 (6) Decisions of the United States Supreme 

5 Court, beginning with Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 

6 U.S. 800 (1982), have established the doctrine of 

7 ‘‘qualified immunity’’, absolving the individual 

8 wrongdoers themselves of liability for even the most 

9 egregious violations of the Constitution unless there 

10 exists a clearly established statutory or constitu11 tional precedent of which all reasonable public offi12 cials would have known. 

13 (7) To be a clearly established precedent, there 

14 must be a prior case whose ‘‘particularized facts’’ 

15 clearly place the statutory or constitutional question 

16 ‘‘beyond debate’’. White v. Pauly, 137 S.Ct. 548, 

17 551–52 (2017). 

18 (8) Qualified immunity was not known at com19 mon law and has had the effect of nullifying the 

20 right to seek redress for constitutional violations un21 less a virtually identical set of facts existed in a case 

22 previously decided that is so well-known and recog23 nized that no reasonable public official would not 

24 have knowledge thereof. 


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1 (9) The failure to hold governmental entities, 

2 responsible for the constitutional violations of their 

3 agents or employees acting within the course and 

4 scope of their employment, together with the quali5 fied immunity the courts have granted the agents 

6 and employees from personal responsibility for their 

7 constitutional violations, deprive citizens of the 

8 United States and other persons within its jurisdic9 tion of an effective remedy for the deprivation of 

10 their rights, privileges or immunities secured by the 

11 Constitution and laws of the United States, and spe12 cifically, drastically weaken the remedy granted by 

13 section 1979 of the Revised Statutes (42 U.S.C. 

14 1983), making this bill which amends the section 

15 necessary in order to restore the purpose and intent 

16 of section 1979 of the Revised Statutes. 

17 SEC. 6. EXPANDING CIVIL RIGHTS REMEDIES. 

18 Section 1979 of the Revised Statutes of the United 

19 States (42 U.S.C. 1983) is amended— 

20 (1) by inserting ‘‘(a)’’ before the first sentence; 

21 and 

22 (2) by adding at the end the following: 

23 ‘‘(b) Any person against whom any action, suit, or 

24 proceeding is filed under subsection (a) for an act or omis25 sion taken in the person’s official capacity may not raise 


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1 as a defense that such act or omission did not violate a 

2 clearly established statutory or constitutional right. 

3 ‘‘(c) In any action, suit, or proceeding filed under 

4 subsection (a) in which a person is held liable for an act 

5 or omission taken in the person’s official capacity, any 

6 State or Territory or the District of Columbia, of which 

7 the person is an employee, shall be vicariously liable for 

8 such act or omission if the act or omission of the person 

9 are attributable to violations of the 14th Amendment by 

10 the State or Territory or the District of Columbia, as the 

11 case may be. 

12 ‘‘(d) Any person who is an employee or contractor 

13 of a State or Territory or the District of Columbia and 

14 is found to be liable under subsection (a) for acts or omis15 sions occurring in the course and scope of such person’s 

16 employment or agreement is entitled to indemnification by 

17 such State or Territory or the District of Columbia if the 

18 act of omission is taken in the person’s official capacity 

19 and attributable to violations of the 14th Amendment by 

20 the State or Territory or the District of Columbia, as the 

21 case may be. 

22 ‘‘(e) Any United States Attorney may bring a civil 

23 action for a violation of this section on behalf of any cit24 izen of the United States or other person within the jurisVerDate Sep 11 2014 21:05 Jun 27, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7115.IH H7115

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1 diction thereof before the appropriate Federal district 

2 court for appropriate relief.’’. 

3 SEC. 7. APPLICATION. 

4 The amendments made by this Act shall apply to any 

5 action, suit, or proceeding pending on the date of enact6 ment of this Act or filed on or after such date. 

Æ 


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