CLE program: Qualified Immunity at a Crossroads 

Date: 3/5/2021

Time: 12pm to 1:15pm

Venue: Zoom teleconference

Registration required!

 

Pennsylvania CLE credits have been requested for this presentation, and will be approved once APABA-PA becomes a fully accredited distance-learning provider. APABA-PA will report credits to PACLE. Thus there will be a delay in the reporting of CLE credits.

This program will be recorded and will be available for later viewing.

Summary: This 1.0 hour CLE program will provide an overview of 42 USC § 1983, the  Supreme Court’s qualified immunity jurisprudence, and a post-George Floyd reform agenda.

Description:  

George Floyd’s killing and the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests have refocused the public’s  attention on civil rights violations at the hands of police and other government officials. In the  post-Civil War period, Congress previously addressed violence and other rights violations  by enacting 42 U.S.C. § 1983 to provide plaintiffs with a civil remedy and deterrent against state  officials violating their rights when acting under color of state law.

Pointedly, Congress never authorized federal judges to create a qualified immunity defense, or  so called “good faith” defense, to liability.

Still, that lack of congressional authorization has not stopped federal courts from erecting a  formidable barrier to plaintiffs from recovering, one that leaves victims without remedies while  simultaneously short circuiting the development of constitutional jurisprudence that would place  officials on notice of their constitutional obligations.

This one (1) credit substantive CLE will survey and critique the U.S. Supreme Court’s evolving  qualified immunity jurisprudence as well as the efforts by a broad coalition of groups to invite the  Courts and the Congress to reconsider the defense. Susan Lin, a partner with Kairys,  Rudovsky, Messing, Feinberg & Lin LLP, will offer a perspective from Philadelphia on § 1983  and qualified immunity litigation. Jay Schweikert, a policy analyst with the CATO Institute, will  address the history of qualified immunity and the legal effort at the Supreme Court to invite a  cross-ideological reexamination of the doctrine. Professor Tuan Samahon, Villanova University  Charles Widger School of Law, will moderate the discussion.

Speakers: 

• Jay Schweikert 

Jay Schweikert is a policy analyst with the Cato Institute’s Project on Criminal Justice. His  research and advocacy focuses on accountability for prosecutors and law enforcement, plea  bargaining, Sixth Amendment trial rights, and the provision and structuring of indigent defense.  Before joining Cato, Jay spent four years doing civil and criminal litigation at Williams &  Connolly LLP. He holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he was an Articles Editor for the  Harvard Law Review, and chaired the Harvard Federalist Society’ s student colloquium program.  Following law school, Jay clerked for Judge Diane Sykes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the  Seventh Circuit, and Judge Laurence Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.  He holds a B.A. in political science and economics from Yale University.

• Susan Lin 

Susan Lin is an experienced criminal defense attorney who has won numerous jury trials in both  state and federal court. In addition to her trial work, she has guided many clients through the  process of serving as a witness in grand jury proceedings and negotiating plea agreements with  prosecutors. Ms. Lin is deeply familiar with federal sentencing law and has secured favorable  sentences for her clients. She has also litigated numerous federal appeals and habeas petitions,  including challenges to both state and federal convictions. She has represented individuals  charged with a wide variety of offenses, including drug trafficking, assaults, robberies,  kidnapping, firearm offenses, money laundering, trademark infringement, white collar fraud,  immigration violations, sex crimes and international trade violations.

Upon joining Kairys, Rudovsky, Messing & Feinberg, Ms. Lin has expanded her practice area to  include civil rights litigation in cases involving misconduct by law enforcement officers.

Susan Lin has studied in Mexico, Chile, Taiwan, and China and is proficient in both Spanish and  Mandarin Chinese. As co-chair of the Marutani Committee of the Asian Pacific American Bar  Association of Pennsylvania, Ms. Lin takes great pleasure in helping to award summer  fellowships to law students interested in government or public interest careers. She also serves  as a member of the Legal Committee of the Philadelphia branch of the American Civil Liberties  Union. She has taught the Federal Defender Clinical as an adjunct faculty member at Temple  Law School. Ms. Lin is a regular contributor to the Federal Defender Third Circuit Blog.

Ms. Lin is a 2004 graduate of Yale Law School and a 2000 graduate of Swarthmore College,  where she was awarded high honors by external examiners. After law school, Ms. Lin clerked  for the Honorable Anita B. Brody of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of  Pennsylvania. She then worked as a local public defender at the Defender Association of  Philadelphia. Prior to joining Kairys, Rudovsky, Messing and Feinberg as an associate attorney in  2014, Ms. Lin was an Assistant Federal Defender in the trial and appellate units at the Federal  Community Defender Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Moderator:  

• Tuan Samahon 

Tuan Samahon teaches and writes in the areas of federal courts and constitutional law. His  articles have been published in the Stanford Law Review, Ohio State Law Journal, Hastings Law  Journal, William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal, University of Chicago Legal Forum, Denver Law  Review, and Villanova Law Review, among others.

Beyond his scholarship, Tuan is engaged in interpreting and fashioning federal constitutional  law. He has testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the  Constitution, and has served as counsel in separation-of-powers and Freedom of Information  Act litigation in federal trial and appellate courts. Recently, Tuan prevailed against the CIA in a

civil action for the release of the draft fifth volume of its secret history of the 1961 Bay of Pigs  operation. In addition to representing others, for a book he is researching, Tuan successfully  sued the FBI for the release of agency records detailing high-ranking executive and judicial  officers’ abuses of power.

Tuan received his B.A. from Brigham Young University and his J.D. from Georgetown University  Law Center, where he was an Olin Law and Economics Research Fellow and was co-awarded the  Olin Prize in Law and Economics. Prior to entering teaching, he clerked for U.S. District Judge  Raymond A. Jackson on the Eastern District of Virginia and for U.S. Circuit Judge Jay S. Bybee on  the Ninth Circuit. He also practiced in the Washington, D.C. office of Covington & Burling.  Professor Samahon was named “Professor of the Year” by his students at the University of  Nevada, Las Vegas. He teaches civil procedure, federal courts, and constitutional law subjects.

During spring 2017, Tuan served as a Fulbright scholar with the law faculty at the University of  Zagreb, Croatia.