Joanna Schwartz
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jcschwartzprof.bsky.social
Joanna Schwartz
@jcschwartzprof.bsky.social
9.2K followers 880 following 210 posts
Honorable Harry Pregerson Professor of Law, UCLA. Civil rights, police accountability, civil procedure. Author of Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable (2023). Learn more at: joannaschwartz.net
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jcschwartzprof.bsky.social
Joanna Schwartz @jcschwartzprof.bsky.social · Nov 1
Police officers almost never pay settlements & judgments against them, but are denied indemnification more often than payout data suggests. This great @themarshallproject.org story describes two recent cases & here's my new draft article examining this phenomenon 👇
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Police officers rarely pay anything towards settlements and judgments entered against them. This observation has been taken to mean that local governments virtually always agree to indemnify their officers and pay the entirety of settlements and judgments entered against them. Yet indemnification decisions are more nuanced, complex, and uncertain—and officers are denied indemnification more often—than payout data suggest. This Article examines the unindemnified: the authority under which officers may be denied indemnification by their employers; the circumstances in which local governments deny or threaten to deny officers indemnification; the ways that indemnification denials influence the litigation of civil rights cases (including why even unindemnified officers rarely pay); the impact of indemnification denials and threatened denials on our system of constitutional remediation; and steps that legislators, government officials, and litigants could take to better align indemnification rules and practices with the compensatory and deterrence goals of §1983.
Reposted by Joanna Schwartz
stevevladeck.bsky.social
Ten years ago today, #SCOTUS issued five unsigned and unexplained 5-4 rulings granting emergency applications to block President Obama’s Clean Power Plan—a completely unprecedented move that helped to usher in the Court’s modern … (mis)adventures … with its shadow docket.

Me in today’s “One First”:
209. The Modern Emergency Docket Turns Ten
The February 2016 rulings blocking the Clean Power Plan were unprecedented; in retrospect, they were harbingers of a paradigm shift in the Supreme Court's role.
www.stevevladeck.com
February 9, 2026 at 12:33 PM
jcschwartzprof.bsky.social
The Supreme Court has restricted the right to sue federal officers in part because agencies' internal investigations are an alternative way to deter misconduct. That (already farcical) justification is downright ridiculous if the feds shut those investigations down. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/u...
Prosecutors Began Investigating Renee Good’s Killing. Washington Told Them to Stop.
www.nytimes.com
February 7, 2026 at 9:03 PM
Reposted by Joanna Schwartz
mollycranenewman.bsky.social
News: Judge Vargas has stopped the Trump administration from freezing federal funds for construction of the Hudson River tunnel. Earlier today, she heard workers would otherwise be fired this weekend, abandoning “literally a massive hole in the earth” indefinitely ag.ny.gov/sites/defaul...
ag.ny.gov
February 7, 2026 at 12:37 AM
jcschwartzprof.bsky.social
www.propublica.org/article/why-...
“You’re Not Going to Investigate a Federal Officer”
It doesn’t happen often, but local law enforcement can arrest and charge federal agents. Legal experts say there’s a moral obligation to at least try to hold federal immigration officers accountable w...
www.propublica.org
February 5, 2026 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by Joanna Schwartz
ladylawyerdiary.bsky.social
Here’s a link to the transcript fyi drive.google.com/file/d/1FnY2...
February 4, 2026 at 10:53 PM
jcschwartzprof.bsky.social
www.ocregister.com/2026/02/03/n...
No police are needed to enforce California’s new no-mask law, senators say
Anyone can file a lawsuit against immigration or other officers who violate the No Secret Police Act., author of the bill says.
www.ocregister.com
February 4, 2026 at 5:40 PM
Reposted by Joanna Schwartz
nothoodlum.bsky.social
Happy Anniversary to those who celebrate cat attorneys.
February 4, 2026 at 1:49 AM
jcschwartzprof.bsky.social
newrepublic.com/post/206115/...
“This Job Sucks”: DOJ Attorney Asks Judge to Hold Her in Contempt
A lawyer working with the Minnesota attorney’s office said she just wants some sleep, after working so hard to try to get ICE to follow court orders.
newrepublic.com
February 4, 2026 at 12:24 AM
Reposted by Joanna Schwartz
gabrielmalor.bsky.social
3d Cir. holds that habeas corpus petitions challenging immigration detention are "civil actions," so prevailing noncitizens may be entitled to attorneys' fees and costs under the Equal Access to Justice Act.

Gonna be a loooooooooot of these.

www2.ca3.uscourts.gov/opinarch/242...
Today the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) provides that the prevailing private party “in any civil action (other than cases sounding in tort)” brought by or against the United States is entitled to attorneys’ fees and costs if the Government’s position was not “substantially justified” or “special circumstances make an award unjust.” 28 U.S.C. § 2412(d)(1)(A). Adolph “Lee” Michelin and Adewumi Abioye prevailed in habeas actions under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 challenging their immigration detentions. The District Courts found the Government’s positions were not “substantially justified” and awarded the detainees fees and costs. The main question these consolidated cases present is whether a petition for a writ of habeas corpus from immigration detention under § 2241 is an EAJA “civil action.” We answer yes and thus affirm.
February 2, 2026 at 6:20 PM
Reposted by Joanna Schwartz
evanbernick.bsky.social
This is the direct result of a judicial order. Law isn’t magic but it can be powerful stuff.
joaquincastrotx.bsky.social Joaquin Castro @joaquincastrotx.bsky.social · 8d
Yesterday, five-year-old Liam and his dad Adrian were released from Dilley detention center. I picked them up last night and escorted them back to Minnesota this morning.

Liam is now home. With his hat and his backpack.
February 1, 2026 at 5:00 PM
Reposted by Joanna Schwartz
alvinsdream.bsky.social
Great piece on Los Angeles cutting down trees to reduce shade out of some misguided belief it will reduce crime and not just make the city more inhospitable. This place could be so amazing if city leadership weren't such a mess. lareported.substack.com/p/shade-remo...
Uncool
Whacking L.A. trees in a mistaken effort to reduce crime
lareported.substack.com
February 1, 2026 at 5:03 PM
Reposted by Joanna Schwartz
audrelawdamercy.bsky.social
👀 Looks like the husband of the woman ICE abducted called his lawyer, lawyer called the cops, then the police chief went and got her & took her home

Article says it may be the first time local Minnesota PD "intervened in a federal law enforcement action" since Trump started terrorizing the state
Screenshot from the quote skeeted article reading as follows: The husband told MPR News that after his wife was taken into custody, he called his attorney, and soon after, he got a call from St. Peter Chief of Police Matt Grochow, whom he said he has known for years. “I was talking to him, kind of venting some of my frustrations,” the man said, adding that he urged the chief to have his officers just be more visible during the federal enforcement actions. “If [local police] were present and they could see you, I promise you their behavior more than likely, or hopefully, would, you know, be appropriate and law abiding.” The husband says he talked to the chief for a while and “we had a good conversation.” “He asked me, ‘what was your wife's name’? I told him my wife's name. He said, ‘was she picked up in a bronco?’ And I said, ‘I'm not sure, but it was an SUV, dark colored. I'd have to look at my video.’ He goes, ‘I think I got her. I'll call you back’.” The husband said a few minutes later, the chief called again, “and said, I got her or I'm bringing her home.” “I was just so relieved that she got released and was able to come home,” he said.
January 31, 2026 at 4:29 PM
jcschwartzprof.bsky.social
Extraordinary opinion for extraordinary times.
January 31, 2026 at 8:43 PM
Reposted by Joanna Schwartz
andycraig.bsky.social
Judge Biery signed the order with a photo of Liam and two bible verses: The first is "But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven." The second is simply "Jesus wept."

Astonishing thing for a judge to do.
Philadelphia, September 17, 1787: "Well, Dr. Franklin, what do we have?" "A republic, if you can keep it." With a judicial finger in the constitutional dike, It is so ORDERED. SIGNED this 31st day of February, 2026. _________________________________________________ FRED BIERY UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE [photo of Liam] Credit: Bystander Matthew 19:14 John 11:35
January 31, 2026 at 8:38 PM
Reposted by Joanna Schwartz
umichlaw.bsky.social
New from Professors Ellen Katz and @sbagen.bsky.social in @ssrn.bsky.social:

The Dismantling of Civil Rights Protections and Thoughts on Rebuilding

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Abstract Over a few months in 2025, the second Trump Administration dismantled the infrastructure for federal civil rights enforcement in the United States. In this paper, we describe key elements of this assault assess its impact, and sketch the beginnings of a set of longer-term goals for remaking civil rights enforcement. We begin with the premise that there is no returning to precisely the same doctrinal and institutional structures set up in the second part of the twentieth century. Restoring the regime to provide the protections that existed on January 20, 2025, when the present assault began, would resurrect what was already a hollowed-out system whose operation fell far short of the aspirations that first propelled it. Nor do we advise restoring the regime to the contours it occupied in, say, 1970, before the many cutbacks that prevented it from operating as intended. Such a restoration simply would not be feasible, even allowing for the dramatic change in political will necessary to secure the far more modest legal changes we recommend here. Nor would such a restoration address head on the evolution in both the manifestation of discriminatory practices and the resistance to remedies for them. We must instead rethink both the substantive doctrines through which we seek to achieve democratic equality and the institutional structures through which those doctrines will be elaborated and enforced. Examining the events of the last year, we believe that a lasting infrastructure for civil rights enforcement requires direct engagement with the specific tactics the current Administration has used to dismantle the pre-existing system. The paper focuses on three of these tactics, which we label erasure, demolition, and weaponization. More specifically, it argues that rebuilding will require structures designed to withstand more effectively future efforts that seek to (1) erase existing data pertaining to race, ethnicity, and gender in a host of realms and terminate…
January 30, 2026 at 6:51 PM
Reposted by Joanna Schwartz
sharonbrett.bsky.social
THREAD: Important decision from the 10th Cir today in the Kansas Highway Patrol case. (disclosure: I handled the trials in this case).

TL/DR: good opinion on standing, bad opinion on scope of injunctive relief avail to victims of police misconduct. (1/x) www.ca10.uscourts.gov/sites/ca10/f...
January 29, 2026 at 9:02 PM
Reposted by Joanna Schwartz
rickhasen.bsky.social
My New One @slate.com: "Trump’s Continued Obsession With 2020 Is a Joke. His Raid on a Georgia Election Site Is Not."
slate.com/news-and-pol...
Given the deep investigations of the 2020 elections generally and Fulton County, Georgia, in particular, it is highly unlikely that the new FBI investigation (whose warrant was curiously sought by a U.S. attorney in Missouri, not Georgia or even Washington, D.C.) will amount to anything. So what was it really about? One tipoff is the curious appearance during the FBI raid of Fulton County’s election offices of Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence, who is known to peddle conspiracy theories herself. Portraying this raid as part of a national security effort is in line with the musings of Cleta Mitchell, a Trump conspiracy-theory ally who had been on Trump’s call with Raffensperger. Back in September, Mitchell, on a call with fellow election deniers, suggested that Trump could declare a “national sovereignty crisis” in a bid to take over the midterm elections. Trump has no power over the conduct of federal elections, which are left in the hands of the states, a point numerous courts have made recently in striking down parts of an August Trump executive order purporting to make voting harder. But that doesn’t mean he won’t try. Trump has expressed regret that he did not seize voting machines in 2020. So this threat for 2026 (and 2028) is real.
January 29, 2026 at 7:47 PM
Reposted by Joanna Schwartz
rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social
Also, CA11 refuses to hold that it was now clearly established, so the result will be exactly the same the next time.

Of course maybe there are other remedies than 1983. I don’t know. But the refusal to rule on violations is a big QI problem.
gabrielmalor.bsky.social Gabriel Malor @gabrielmalor.bsky.social · 11d
11th Cir., 2-1, holds that it was not clearly established that it would violate a person's right to bodily integrity for sheriff's deputy to drive drunk at night without lights, hit the person's car, and then flee leaving person to die.

QI for deputy.

media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub...
Though these situations may be factually distinct, we cannot cast them aside in our “obvious clarity” analysis. Where precedent injects such uncertainty, it does not follow logically that the complained of offense “so obviously violates th[e] [C]onstitution.” Mercado v. City of Orlando, 407 F.3d 1152, 1159 (11th Cir. 2005). Indeed, when caselaw indicates that a certain type of conduct does not rise to the level of a constitutional violation, officials cannot possibly be on notice that the conduct is a constitutional violation—and certainly not with obvious clarity. See Hope, 536 U.S. at 741; al-Kidd, 563 U.S. at 741. The existence of this caselaw casting doubt on the “obvious clarity” of Moss’s claimed right—and, indeed, disclaiming such a right altogether—necessarily means that the right was not clearly established at the time of the violation. To be sure, similar out-of-circuit cases have reached the opposite conclusion. For example, as the district court noted in its order, in Browder v. City of Albuquerque, the Tenth Circuit concluded that a police officer’s misuse of a squad car resulting in a fatal collision could give rise to a claim under the Fourteenth Amendment. 787 F.3d 1076, 1083 (10th Cir. 2015).
January 29, 2026 at 8:02 PM
Reposted by Joanna Schwartz
profferguson.bsky.social
I would like to connect the dots between the Supreme Court’s upcoming Chatrie decision on geofence requests and the growing authoritarian and aggressive deployment of law enforcement around protests and dissent.1/12
January 29, 2026 at 6:38 PM
Reposted by Joanna Schwartz
aliciabannon.bsky.social
States have more power than many people realize to prosecute federal law enforcement for violations of state criminal law. I wrote about the legal framework governing these prosecutions in @statecourtreport.org. statecourtreport.org/our-work/ana...
January 28, 2026 at 2:49 PM
Reposted by Joanna Schwartz
samstecklow.bsky.social
Fascinating to see former Utah police chief Ken Wallentine cited here as a use of force “consultant” voicing concerns about ICE tactics.

Wallentine spent years writing policies that protect cops who use force for Lexipol, and nearly all of his “consulting” in lawsuits has been on behalf of police.
January 28, 2026 at 3:02 PM
Reposted by Joanna Schwartz
radleybalko.bsky.social
Just ordered a t-shirt from this bar. Happy to promote any other business that does something similar.

Let’s make Bondi’s mug shots a badge of honor.
radleybalko.bsky.social Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 12d
Yes. More of this.

Love to see it.
blackhartstp.com Black Hart of Saint Paul @blackhartstp.com · 12d
You walk into this bar and show your ICE mugshot, you don't pay a dime.
January 29, 2026 at 1:40 AM
Reposted by Joanna Schwartz
cherylrofer.bsky.social
I think these photos are not doing what Pam Bondi thinks they are doing
joshrosenau.org Josh Rosenau @joshrosenau.org · 12d
Why is the scaredest and most innocent teen in the entire world flanked by not one but two HSI people too embarrassed to show their faces?
Three photos from Pam Bondi’s twitter account. In each, a cool person is standing and looking at the camera, apparently detained by a faceless goon wearing a navy windbreaker claiming they work for HSI. In one, the detainee seems to have been crying and is flanked by two agents just in case her tears pose a special threat. Four photos from AG Pam Bondi’s twitter account. In each, a cool person you want to hang out with is looking vaguely detained while a good wearing a HSI windbreaker hides their face in shame next to them.
January 29, 2026 at 1:06 AM
jcschwartzprof.bsky.social
If you need a clear and cogent explanation of barriers to criminal and civil accountability for federal officers, listen to the first twenty minutes of this excellent @strictscrutiny.bsky.social episode.
strictscrutiny.bsky.social Strict Scrutiny Podcast @strictscrutiny.bsky.social · 14d
NEW: We talk about ICE killing another Minnesotan -- Alex Pretti -- & legal battles & issues on ICE's occupation.

Then we break down last week's SCOTUS arguments, on executive power over the Federal Reserve & ... Second Amendment rights on private property. + more news!

crooked.com/podcast/will...
a woman in a brown coat is sitting in a living room with a plant and a tv .
Alt: a woman in a brown coat is sitting in a living room with a plant and a tv .
media.tenor.com
January 28, 2026 at 10:58 PM
Reposted by Joanna Schwartz
utamu.bsky.social
Why it’s hard to sue #ICE officers for abuse. The civil rights law that's allowed lawsuits vs. local & state police doesn’t apply to feds. In 1871, bands of masked men were riding thru southern states, terrorizing Black people w/murders, beatings & rapes.
www.themarshallproject.org/2026/01/27/m...
Why It’s Hard for Civilians to Sue ICE for Its Actions in Minnesota
The civil rights law that has allowed lawsuits against local and state police doesn’t apply to federal agents.
www.themarshallproject.org
January 28, 2026 at 8:52 PM