Temple of 1001 Buddhas, et al. v. City of Fremont, California

42 U.S.C. § 1983 provides that any person who, “under color of” state law, subjects any person “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[.]” The decisions of this Court render state municipalities “people” that are subject to liability under Section 1983. In this case, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that state municipalities are not subject to Section 1983 liability when the deprivation of rights is sufficiently diffused across municipal decision-makers. The lower court also held that a searching review is not required to investigate disparate treatment in connection with an alleged free exercise violation. The questions presented are:

1. Whether a state municipality can be held liable under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 when decision rights and associated impingements on free exercise are distributed across municipal employees instead of perpetuated by a single decision-maker.

2. Whether, upon a showing of disparate treatment among religious and secular institutions, a searching review is required to determine if the religious institution was singled out with especially harsh treatment in violation of the First Amendment.