Laura Covington v. City of Madisonville, Texas
SocialSecurity DueProcess
Whether a plaintiff must overcome a presumption that a police chief is not an official policymaker to prove the municipality delegated policymaking authority to the police chief over the discrete police activity that caused the constitutional violation
QUESTION PRESENTED To obtain relief against a municipality under §1983, a plaintiff must show an official policy from a policymaker was the moving force behind a violation of a constitutional right. The question of whether an official is a policymaker is a matter of state law. Does this Court’s precedent require a plaintiff to overcome a presumption that a police chief is not an official policymaker to prove the municipality delegated policymaking authority to the police chief over the discrete police activity that caused the constitutional violation?