Constitutional Accountability Act: Why Your City Could Soon Be Liable for Every Cop’s Action

The Constitutional Accountability Act is a heavy hitter aimed squarely at the legal shields protecting state and local governments when their officers violate someone’s constitutional rights. If passed, this bill fundamentally rewrites the rules for holding governments accountable under Section 1983, the federal law used to sue for rights violations. The core change? It defines “person” to include the United States, states, territories, and local governments, and then explicitly waives sovereign immunity for them. This means if a law enforcement officer violates your rights, you can sue the government entity directly, not just the individual officer—a massive shift in liability.

The End of the ‘Policy or Custom’ Loophole

Right now, if a police officer violates your constitutional rights, you generally can’t sue the city or county unless you can prove that the violation resulted from an official “policy or custom” of the municipality. This legal hurdle, established by the 1978 Supreme Court case Monell, is notoriously difficult to clear. It means that isolated acts of misconduct, even severe ones, often don't result in the government entity being held financially responsible. This bill eliminates that roadblock entirely. Under Section 3, liability for a government entity attaches simply if the violation was committed by an individual employed by or contracted by that entity to perform law enforcement work. It doesn't matter if the employee was following policy or if they would otherwise be immune from liability. This is a massive change, shifting the focus from proving systemic failure to proving employee misconduct.

Who Pays the Tab: Taxpayers on the Hook

For the average person, this bill is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it significantly increases accountability. If a police department knows that every instance of officer misconduct could result in a successful lawsuit against the city, they have a powerful financial incentive to improve hiring, training, and supervision. The bill’s findings section even points out that many departments lack uniform training standards, especially for de-escalation. This new liability standard pushes departments to fix those gaps. For instance, if an officer uses excessive force, the victim no longer has to prove the police chief signed off on the training that led to the force; they just have to prove the officer did it.

On the other hand, the financial exposure for local governments is about to skyrocket. The bill explicitly waives sovereign immunity for states and the US government for these claims. When a government entity loses a civil rights lawsuit, the judgment is paid out of public funds. This means increased accountability comes with a direct cost to taxpayers. Every successful lawsuit, every settlement, will ultimately be funded by local and state budgets. Municipalities will likely face higher insurance premiums, increased litigation costs, and potentially massive payouts, which could force cuts in other public services or lead to tax hikes. It’s the classic trade-off: more accountability for government actions, but potentially higher costs for the community funding that government.

The Broad Reach of Liability

The bill’s definition of liability is expansive. It covers not just full-time employees but also individuals “contracted by” the entity to perform law enforcement work, regardless of whether the individual officer would have immunity. This means if a state hires a private security firm to conduct arrests or searches, the state itself could be liable for that contractor’s constitutional violations. This provision aims to close loopholes where governments outsource sensitive functions to avoid liability. While this broad reach ensures accountability, it also creates significant legal uncertainty for jurisdictions that rely on contracted services, potentially leading to a complex web of legal challenges as governments try to navigate this new, sweeping liability standard.