The Supreme Court has rejected disbarred lawyer Michael Cohen’s attempt to revive a civil rights claim against former President Donald Trump. Cohen alleged that Trump and other officials violated his rights by putting him in solitary confinement for writing a tell-all book while serving a three-year sentence related to his work for Trump. After being released from solitary confinement, he sued Trump and others for damages, but the court ruled that bringing such civil rights claims against individual federal officials is difficult due to a precedent called Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents. This precedent has made it almost impossible to bring claims of constitutional violations against federal officials. A recent case called Egbert v. Boule further weakened these claims, leading lower court judges to throw out similar cases involving allegedly unconstitutional conduct. The Supreme Court cited these cases in rejecting Cohen’s claims, emphasizing the difficulty of pursuing civil rights claims against federal officials. Cohen expressed concerns that Trump, if re-elected, would continue to target individuals like him, highlighting the importance of having deterrents in place.
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Supreme Court dismisses Michael Cohen’s civil rights lawsuit against Trump regarding tell-all book
