Book Review by Peter W. Salsich, Jr.
Local government officials who lived through the years 1978-1982 will not soon forget the experience. In that relatively short period, their world was turned upside down by a quintet of Supreme Court decisions. In these cases, the Supreme Court removed major shields that had protected local government officials from legal liability for certain decisions that they made. In City of Lafayette v. Louisiana Power & Light Co., the Court held that cities were not automatically exempt from federal antitrust statutes. In Owen v. City of Independence, the Court held that city officials were not entitled to immunity for actions taken in good faith. Thus, as a result of the Court's decision in Monell v. Department of Social Services that cities were ‘persons' for purposes of the federal civil rights statutes and its ruling in Maine v. Thiboutot that 42 U.S.C. § 1983 covers federal statutory rights as well as constitutional rights, cities can now be sued by individuals who claim to have been injured by the actions of local officials. Finally, in Community Communications Co. v. City of Boulder, the Court held that a state's delegation of home rule power to cities does not in itself establish the state action necessary to maintain an exemption to antitrust law.
As a result of these decisions, municipal officials found themselves scrambling to cope with crises for which they were totally unprepared. Their world appeared to be collapsing on top of them, and they had neither the resources nor the trained people to cope with the enormous changes in responsibility. Who at the local government level, for example, knew anything about antitrust law? Who knew anything about civil rights litigation?
About the Author
Peter W. Salsich, Jr. Professor of Law, Saint Louis University School of Law; B.A. 1959, Notre Dame University; J.D. 1965, Saint Louis University School of Law.
Citation
59 Tul. L. Rev. 1141 (1985)