A Permanent Stop Sign: Why Courts Should Yield to the Temptation to Impose Heightened Pleading Standards in § 1983 Case

In a modern legal landscape, the notion of heightened pleadings sounds like rhetoric reminiscent of feudal England, conjuring up images of medieval barriers designed to prevent access to the King’s Court.   As archaic as the phenomenon sounds, contemporary federal courts have imposed heightened pleading standards on civil rights plaintiffs, partly as a response to the proliferation of civil rights claims being filed – claims that have become a proverbial thorn in jurists’ sides and to which federal courts have become increasingly hostile.   As a practical, albeit unintentional, effect of these judicially mandated heightened pleading requirements, civil rights plaintiffs’ constitutional right of access to the legal system has been severely restricted, as has their opportunity to seek redress for the violation of federal or constitutional rights by agents of the government.