retaliation by government officials

Second Circuit

Saleh v. City of New York, 2007 WL 4437167, at *9 (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 17, 2007) (stating that “it may be sound practice for NYPD officers to alert ICE when they encounter unlawful aliens under normal circumstances, but when they do so for retaliatory purposes, they run afoul of the Constitution”).

Eighth Circuit

Rinne v. Camden Cnty., 65 F.4th 378, 384 (8th Cir. 2023) (“It was clearly established at the time of the Commission’s action that a government official may not retaliate against a citizen for the exercise of his First Amendment rights.”).

Benson v. Piper, 17-CV-266 (DWF/TNL), 2019 WL 2017319, at *11 (D. Minn. Jan. 25, 2019), report and recommendation adopted, CV 17-266 (DWF/TNL), 2019 WL 1307883 (D. Minn. Mar. 22, 2019) (“Plaintiff has a clearly established right to file a lawsuit under the First Amendment and a reasonable official in the shoes of McGowan and Kosloski would have known that it was unlawful to retaliate against Plaintiff for exercising his First Amendment rights.”).

Solomon v. Petray, 795 F.3d 777, 787 (8th Cir. 2015) (“Thomas’s argument for qualified immunity fails because the facts and reasonable inferences allege that Thomas violated Solomon’s constitutional right to be free from retaliation for exercising his right to expression.”).

Kilpatrick v. King, 499 F.3d 759, 767 (8th Cir. 2007) (“A citizen’s right to exercise the constitutional freedoms to speak and to seek judicial relief without facing retaliation from government officials is clearly established.”).

  • Jones v. Abla-Reyes, CV 14-2980 (DWF/FLN), 2016 WL 6915505, at *5 (D. Minn. Nov. 22, 2016) (same).
  • Williams v. City of Alexander, Ark., 772 F.3d 1307, 1313 (8th Cir. 2014) (same).
  • Bounds v. Hanneman, CIV. 13-266 JRT/FLN, 2014 WL 1303711, at *5 (D. Minn. Feb. 4, 2014), report and recommendation adopted in part, CIV. 13-266 JRT/FLN, 2014 WL 1303715 (D. Minn. Mar. 31, 2014) (same).
  • Benjamin v. Peterson, CIV. 12-220 DWF/SER, 2013 WL 3097271, at *5 (D. Minn. June 18, 2013) (same).
  • Lawrence v. City of St. Paul, 740 F. Supp. 2d 1026, 1045 (D. Minn. 2010) (same, stating that “reasonable officers in the positions of Officers Bolduan and Jerue could not have believed that it was constitutional to abuse their authority as police officers in order to retaliate against a citizen for accusing a fellow police officer of a crime”).

Wilson v. Northcutt, 441 F.3d 586, 592 (8th Cir. 2006) (stating that “it is clearly established that a government official may not ‘punish [a citizen] for having exercised [her] constitutional right to seek judicial relief’”).

Freeman v. Blair, 862 F.2d 1330, 1332 (8th Cir. 1988) (“The law making retaliation for the exercise of a constitutional right actionable under § 1983 was clearly established long before the events in this case, . . . and objectively reasonable officials could not fail to know of it.”).