Bethany Farber v. City of Los Angeles, California, et al.

42 U.S.C. Section 1983 provides that any person who, “under color of” state law, subjects any other 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[.]” In this case, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit analyzed Farber’s Section 1983 claim for wrongful detention under the Fourteenth Amendment and found no violation of her substantive due process rights. Pet. App. 4a. The panel’s examination of Farber’s claim through the lens of substantive due process implicates a broad split of authority as to whether such claims should be considered under the Fourth or Fourteenth Amendment and presents the following question for review. 1. Whether the right against wrongful detention falls under the Fourth Amendment’s proscription against unreasonable seizures, or the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of substantive due process?