Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendants’ (States Attorney, City and County) motion to dismiss for failure to state valid claim in plaintiff’s (unsuccessful States Attorney candidate) section 1983 action, alleging that defendants violated his First, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights, where plaintiff asserted that: (1) defendants improperly subpoenaed his Facebook account information as part of investigation into his potential involvement in perjury/bribery case; (2) County Board member improperly removed one of plaintiff’s campaign signs; and (3) Chief of Police improperly endorsed plaintiff’s opponent by posting picture of himself and opponent on police’s official Facebook page. Plaintiff failed to identify any authority to support his improper endorsement claim. Moreover, plaintiff sought to enjoin Circuit Court Judge from releasing Facebook account information, and plaintiff failed to allege either existence of any declarative decree violation or that any declaratory relief was unavailable to him. With respect to improper removal of his campaign sign, Board member indicated to Board that he mistakenly believed that sign was placed without permission, and County Board thereafter determined that no further action needed to be taken. Plaintiff could not sue Board member under section 1983 because plaintiff failed to allege that Board member was acting under color of law. Also, plaintiff could not sue County, where plaintiff failed to allege that Board member had revealed any unconstitutional motivation for sign removal or that County had approved any unconstitutional motivation for sign removal.
Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
First Amendment