Opinion ID: 1822038
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Elements of Plaintiff's Section 1983 Claim.

Text: The civil rights statute on which plaintiff bases his claim, commonly referred to as section 1983, provides in pertinent part: Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any state ... subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States ... to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress. 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (1981). To support his claim derived from that statute, plaintiff must show (1) that the defendant deprived him of a right secured by the constitution and laws of the United States, and (2) that defendant acted under color of state law. Parratt v. Taylor, 451 U.S. 527, 535, 101 S.Ct. 1908, 1913, 68 L.Ed.2d 420, 428 (1981); Adickes v. S.H. Kress & Co., 398 U.S. 144, 150, 90 S.Ct. 1598, 1604, 26 L.Ed.2d 142, 150 (1970); see Cunha v. City of Algona, 334 N.W.2d 591, 596 (Iowa 1983) (listing elements of § 1983 claim against municipality). The second major element of this cause of action, requiring that defendant have acted under color of state law, is firmly established in this case because defendant was acting at all pertinent times in his official capacity as a criminal investigator for the state. This appeal concerns only the first element, the claim that defendant violated his constitutional rights. Initially we must determine what right secured by the constitution and laws plaintiff contends was violated by defendant's conduct. Plaintiff's petition alleged only that defendant's conduct violated his constitutional liberty interests without identifying what constitutional right was infringed. Both the right to be free from illegal arrest and the right to due process after arrest are liberty interests which enjoy constitutional protection. We first analyze plaintiff's post-arrest due process rights, then his rights arising under the fourth amendment, as incorporated into the fourteenth amendment to the United States Constitution.