SACRAMENTO — Amid a national uproar over the recent killing of a Minnesota man by immigration agents, the California Senate on Tuesday approved proposed legislation that would make it easier to sue law enforcement officials suspected of violating an individual’s constitutional rights.
Senate Bill 747 by Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) creates a pathway for residents to take legal action against federal agents for excessive use of force, unlawful home searches, interfering with a right to protest and other violations.
The bill, which cleared a Senate committee earlier this year, passed in a 30-10 vote along party lines.
Other states, including New York and Connecticut, are weighing similar legislation after widespread anger over actions during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Existing laws already allow lawsuits against state and local law enforcement officials. But it is much harder to bring claims against federal officers. Wiener said his bill would rectify those impediments.
Several state law enforcement agencies oppose the legislation, arguing it will also be used to sue local officers.
Tuesday’s vote follows the killing of 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday by federal officials, who tackled him to the ground, appeared to remove his holstered handgun and then shot Pretti several times in the back. During the debate on the state Senate floor Tuesday, several Democratic lawmakers called Pretti’s death an execution or murder.
Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was also shot and killed by an agent earlier this month in Minnesota in what federal officials have asserted was an act of self-defense when she allegedly drove her vehicle toward an officer — an assertion under dispute.
The deaths, as well as the government’s insistence that immigration agents don’t require judicial warrants to enter homes, have outraged Democratic leaders, who accuse federal officers of flouting laws as they seek to deport thousands of undocumented immigrants.
Wiener, speaking to reporters before Tuesday’s vote, said that his legislation would reform the law to ensure that federal officials are held accountable for wrongdoing.
“Under current law, if a local or state officer shoots your mom … or publicly executes an ICU nurse, you can sue,” Wiener said. “That’s long-standing civil rights law, but in the current law, it’s almost impossible to file that same lawsuit against the federal agent who does the exact same thing.”
During Tuesday’s debate on the Senate floor, Sen. Tony Strickland (R-Huntington Beach) acknowledged the “chaos” in Minnesota but criticized the bill as being about immigration politics. He urged his colleagues to focus on the state’s affordability crisis rather than challenges to the federal government.
“We need to start focusing on California-specific issues like gas, gas prices,” Strickland said.
Strickland’s comments drew a rebuke from Sen. Susan Rubio (D-West Covina), who said the bill wasn’t about immigration but “about the egregious violation of people’s rights and the murders that we are witnessing.”
“This is about equal justice under the law,” said Rubio, a onetime undocumented immigrant.
Wiener’s bill now heads to the state Assembly. The senator, who is running to fill the seat of outgoing Rep. Nancy Pelosi, told reporters that he didn’t know if Gov. Gavin Newsom supported his legislation or if he would sign it into law if it passed the full Legislature.
Wiener’s proposed law was put forth after George Retes Jr., a California security guard, was detained after a July raid in Camarillo. Retes, a U.S. citizen and Army veteran, said he was held for three days without the ability to make a phone call or see an attorney.
Retes has accused Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin of spreading false information about him to justify his detention. The Homeland Security department said in a statement last year that Retes impeded its operation, which he denies.
Under U.S. Code Section 1983, a person can sue state and local officials who violate their constitutional rights. A state law also allows lawsuits against state and local officials for interfering with a person’s constitutional rights by force or threat.
When it comes to filing legal action against federal officials, lawsuits can be brought through the Bivens doctrine, which refers to the 1971 Supreme Court ruling in Bivens vs. Six Unknown Federal Agents that established that federal officials can be sued for monetary damages for constitutional violations.
But in recent decades, the Supreme Court has repeatedly restricted the ability to sue under Bivens. Some Supreme Court justices have also argued that it’s up to Congress to pass a statute that would allow federal officers to be sued when they violate the Constitution.
Those opposed to Wiener’s law include the Peace Officers Research Assn. of California, which represents more than 85,000 public safety members. The group argues it would result in more lawsuits against local and state officials, essentially creating multiple paths for litigation.
