Opinion ID: 1127461
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Availability of arbitration or other remedies.

Text: (6) A review of United States Supreme Court decisions suggests that the court does not deem arbitration of claimed violations of constitutional rights to be equivalent to, or an acceptable substitute for, judicial resolution in a section 1983 action. Moreover, other decisions of the high court establish that a section 1983 action may be displaced by an alternative remedy only when Congress has foreclosed the right to the section 1983 action. [6] No state-created remedy may displace a section 1983 action, which is supplementary to any other remedies, unless Congress has expressed an intent that the state remedy do so. The rule cannot differ for state- and federally created remedies, as the intent of Congress controls the availability of a section 1983 action to remedy violations of federal statutory and constitutional rights. When an alternative federal statutory right is available, a section 1983 action must be permitted unless Congress has expressed an intent, or the alternative federal statutory scheme reflects congressional intent, that the alternative right be exclusive. It follows that the availability of a state remedy does not displace a section 1983 action.