Farm Labor Organizing Committee v. Ohio State Highway Patrol, Sixth Circuit

In this case, a group of migrant workers filed a class action lawsuit, alleging that the Ohio State Highway Patrol violated their constitutional rights by assuming that, because of their ethnicity, they were unlawfully in the US. The case focused on one incident in particular.  Two people driving through Ohio were stopped by state troopers who seized their green cards, not returning them for four days. The primary issue before the court was whether the doctrine of qualified immunity, which shields government employees from personal liability when their conduct does not violate clearly established rights, applied in this case and shielded the troopers from liability.

The plaintiffs argued that the troopers singled them out between of their ethnicity, which would clearly violate their constitutional rights. The troopers argued that their inquiries were motivated by the plaintiffs’ inability to speak English, which, they claim, is a neutral basis for an investigation. The court found that there was more than enough evidence to conclude that Ohio state troopers routinely treated Hispanic motorists different from white ones. Noting that while the troopers can argue in future hearings that other facts would have led them to make the same sort of investigation regardless of the plaintiffs’ ethnicity, the court found that there was enough evidence of racial discrimination to allow a trial on the issue.  The court also found that keeping the plaintiffs’ green cards for four days was clearly unreasonable and a violation of plaintiffs’ constitutional rights. Therefore, the court denied qualified immunity for the troopers, who will face trial.

The opinion is available online at http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=6th&navby=case&no=02a0361p.