Ted Velleff v. Thomas J. Dart, Sheriff, Cook County, Illinois, et al.

The Seventh Circuit stands alone in its narrow interpretation of the protections afforded to property by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Sheriff of Cook County enforces its policy to destroy government–issued identification belonging to prisoners transferred to the penitentiary. While the Sheriff retains such property during pretrial detention, and the Department of Corrections stands ready to store it during imprisonment, the Sheriff declines to transfer the property to the penitentiary. Instead, unless the prisoner can engage an agent to retrieve the property, the Sheriff destroys it—without any stated reason or legitimate governmental purpose. Every other circuit would recognize such a policy as a deprivation of property contrary to the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Seventh Circuit upheld the policy in this case in accordance with its longstanding precedent. A petition presenting a related question is before the Court in Carter v. Cook County Sheriff, No. 25-401. The questions presented are:

1. Whether the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment forbids the government from depriving individuals of personal property by applying a policy that serves no legitimate governmental purpose.

2. Whether a plaintiff may seek relief under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for such a deprivation without first exhausting state post-deprivation remedies, when the deprivation results from an official and deliberate policy rather than a random or unauthorized act. (i)