The U.S. Supreme Court. (Jane Norman/States Newsroom)
Civil rights attorneys want the U.S. Supreme Court to slow Louisiana’s use of a quick clock on bringing police brutality cases to court — a statute of limitations that’s out of step with federal law.
The Institute of Justice, a Virginia-based public interest law firm, has attached briefs to two Louisiana lawsuits that are in federal court — Brown v. Pouncy and Monroe v. Conner — that both involve incidents of police brutality against plaintiffs accused of non-violent offenses.
In both cases, the plaintiffs, who the Louisiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union represents, brought suit against law enforcement agencies within two years of the incidents, which the Institute of Justice said is a typical statute of limitations period.
However, both cases were dismissed at the district court level, and an appeals court upheld both dismissals because Louisiana, at that time, was one of just four jurisdictions with a statute of limitations of one year for bringing such Civil Rights Act claims to court. In June, Louisiana lawmakers extended that timeframe to two years.