Universal Constitutional Remedies bill

Currently, you can’t sue federal officials like ICE or FBI agents for past harms that violated your constitutional rights. For constitutional violations by state and local officials, one can sue under a federal law known as Section 1983. Federal officials operate with much less accountability than officials at other levels of government. This needs to be addressed urgently. A Universal Constitutional Remedies Act would solve this problem by simply giving people the same right to sue federal officials that they already have for officials at other levels of government. At this time, only legal recourse for unconstitutional abuses by federal officials is often to try to get a court injunction — essentially, a forward-looking order to stop. Getting an injunction requires demonstrating a probability that you will suffer the constitutional injury again in the future. Needless to say, not all victims of unconstitutional conduct can show that they will be subject to a future violation of their rights. Both California and New York have introduced legislation to address this glaring problem. Please consider moving forward with a bill to address this problem as soon as possible.