{{Short description|Proposal in US law to allow state action against the federal government}}
'''Converse-1983''' is a concept coined by the American law professor Akhil Reed Amar to describe a law that would allow individuals to sue federal officials in state court for damages when those officials violate the U.S. Constitution. The name comes from the existing statute 42 U.S.C. § 1983, which provides that any person acting under state law who deprives someone of federal rights is federally liable to the injured party.
Amar coined the idea in a 1987 ''Yale Law Journal'' article entitled "Of Sovereignty and Federalism".<ref>{{cite web |title=Akhil Reed Amar |publisher=Yale Law School |url=https://law.yale.edu/akhil-reed-amar}}</ref> 42 U.S.C. § 1983 allows people to sue state officials for violating federal constitutional rights. Amar's proposal would run this logic in the other direction, suggesting that states pass their own statutes giving people a damages remedy when federal officials violate the federal Constitution. Instead of federal law policing state officers, state law would police federal officers, mirroring § 1983, but inverted along the state–federal axis.<ref>{{cite web |title=State-Created Damages Remedies Against Federal Officials |publisher=State Democracy Research Initiative, University of Wisconsin Law School |url=https://statedemocracy.law.wisc.edu/our-work/state-created-damages-remedies-against-federal-officials}}</ref>
Amar described converse-1983 as "any statute that would invert § 1983 by providing a general state-law-created cause of action against persons acting unconstitutionally under color of federal law."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Amar |first=Akhil Reed |title=Of Sovereignty and Federalism |journal=Yale Law Journal |volume=96 |issue=7 |page=1428 |year=1987 |doi=10.2307/796493 |jstor=796493 |url=https://www.yalelawjournal.org/article/of-sovereignty-and-federalism}}</ref>
Structurally, Amar read the original design of federalism as allowing states to enforce the federal Constitution against federal officers, not just the other way around.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Amar |first=Akhil Reed |title=Using State Law to Protect Federal Constitutional Rights: Some Questions and Answers About Converse-1983 |journal=University of Colorado Law Review |volume=64 |issue=1 |at=Article 5 |year=1993 |url=https://scholar.law.colorado.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2034&context=lawreview}}</ref> Proponents of converse-1983 policies view them as addressing gaps in remedies for constitutional violations, especially in the context of the Supreme Court's narrowing of the ''Bivens'' doctrine, the judge-made federal counterpart that lets people sue federal officers for constitutional violations.<ref>{{cite web |title=Resuscitating State Damages Remedies Against Federal Officials |publisher=State Court Report |url=https://statecourtreport.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/resuscitating-state-damages-remedies-against-federal-officials}}</ref>
This proposal has received renewed attention in response to United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) enforcement activity in 2026.<ref>{{cite news |last=Stark |first=Harrison |title=Can State Law Remedy Constitutional Violations by Federal Officers? |work=Lawfare |publisher=The Lawfare Institute |date=February 27, 2026 |url=https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/can-state-law-remedy-constitutional-violations-by-federal-officers}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=Liptak, Adam |title=A Legal Tool for Holding ICE Agents to Account, Hiding in Plain Sight|work=The New York Times |date=February 2, 2026 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/02/us/ice-lawsuits-states.html |access-date=May 19, 2026}}</ref> California, Maine, Massachusetts, and New Jersey already have something like a converse-1983 on the books, and it has been proposed by 15 other states in just as many months of the second Trump presidency.<ref>{{cite news |last=Bidwell |first=Anya |title=State Efforts to Allow Lawsuits Against Federal Officials Gain Speed |work=State Court Report |publisher=Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law |date=April 6, 2026 |url=https://statecourtreport.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/state-efforts-allow-lawsuits-against-federal-officials-gain-speed}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Hutzell |first=Rick |title=Hutzell: Maryland considers a new legal tool to hold ICE agents accountable for abuses |work=The Baltimore Banner |date=February 10, 2026 |url=https://www.thebanner.com/opinion/column/converse-1983-us-constitution-supremacy-clause-ice-WKENXSLV2RGFZO7SQHWDKXYTYU/}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
Category:Federalism in the United States Category:Legal concepts