HB Secures Dismissal in Federal Court Identity Rights Case: Winter 2025

Alexandra Seibert, Esq., senior associate at Hassard Bonnington, had an extraordinary win in federal court. In a complex case involving civil rights claims, parental rights claims and implicated personal autonomy/identity rights, Alex’s legal writing skills resulted in a complete dismissal of the case during the second round of Motions to Dismiss. With respect to the federal claim for violation of Section 1983, the Court held that defendants were barred from suit and entitled to qualified immunity given plaintiff’s failure to identify a “clearly established” constitutional right. The defense of qualified immunity protects “government officials . . . from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.” Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818 (1982).

Under the second prong of the qualified immunity analysis, “[a] right is clearly established only if its contours are sufficiently clear that ‘a reasonable official would understand that what he is doing violates that right.’ In other words, ‘existing precedent must have placed the statutory or constitutional question beyond debate.’” Carroll v. Carman, 574 U.S. 13, 16 (2014) (citations omitted).

-Corinna E. Meissner

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