Limit 08 of nine · Remedies
Hold enforcement accountable
After Goldey v. Fields (June 2025), no federal remedy is left when enforcement crosses the line.
The problem
A limit with no remedy is a suggestion. In 2025–26 the federal paths to accountability closed at once: the Supreme Court barred the core damages claim (Goldey v. Fields, Jun 30 2025), tort immunity walls off the rest, and the DHS oversight offices were gutted. Two U.S. citizens were killed in enforcement operations — and their families hit the same immunity wall. A state right to sue is the remedy that’s left.
What the law does
Makes the state’s limits enforceable — through a private right to sue and/or attorney-general authority reaching local law enforcement.
Where it stands
- Alaska: None
- Alabama: None
- Arkansas: None (state law mandates cooperation)
- Arizona: None (state law mandates cooperation)
- California: Full
- Colorado: Full
- Connecticut: Full
- District of Columbia: None
- Delaware: None
- Florida: None (state law mandates cooperation)
- Georgia: None
- Hawaii: None
- Iowa: None (state law mandates cooperation)
- Idaho: None
- Illinois: Full
- Indiana: None (state law mandates cooperation)
- Kansas: None (state law mandates cooperation)
- Kentucky: None (state law mandates cooperation)
- Louisiana: None (state law mandates cooperation)
- Massachusetts: None
- Maryland: Full
- Maine: Partial
- Michigan: None
- Minnesota: None
- Missouri: None (state law mandates cooperation)
- Mississippi: None (state law mandates cooperation)
- Montana: None (state law mandates cooperation)
- North Carolina: None (state law mandates cooperation)
- North Dakota: None (state law mandates cooperation)
- Nebraska: None (state law mandates cooperation)
- New Hampshire: None (state law mandates cooperation)
- New Jersey: Partial
- New Mexico: Full
- Nevada: None
- New York: Full
- Ohio: None
- Oklahoma: None
- Oregon: Full
- Pennsylvania: None
- Rhode Island: None
- South Carolina: None (state law mandates cooperation)
- South Dakota: None (state law mandates cooperation)
- Tennessee: None (state law mandates cooperation)
- Texas: None (state law mandates cooperation)
- Utah: None
- Virginia: Partial
- Vermont: None
- Washington: Full
- Wisconsin: None
- West Virginia: None (state law mandates cooperation)
- Wyoming: None (state law mandates cooperation)
- Puerto Rico: None
Methodology v3.4 · scored Jun 10 2026
The model language
Read the full model bill →“Any person aggrieved by a violation of any provision of this Act, or any organization with standing on behalf of such persons, may bring a civil action in any court of competent jurisdiction against the responsible state or local agency or its employees acting in their official capacity.”
What we propose
Create a private right of action (damages, fees, and a statutory minimum per unlawful detention) plus attorney-general authority to investigate and penalize, with a non-retaliation clause. Model: Connecticut HB 7212 (2025); the Illinois Bivens Act (PA 104-0440).
Who’s already done it
12 states have a mechanism; 9 at full strength — CA, CO, CT, IL, MD, NM, NY, OR, WA. Connecticut and Oregon do both (sue + AG); Illinois’s Bivens Act recreates the very federal remedy the Supreme Court withdrew.
On the record
- Goldey v. Fields, 606 U.S. 942 (Jun 30 2025) — damages claim barred
- Illinois Bivens Act (PA 104-0440), eff. Dec 9 2025
- Connecticut HB 7212 (2025), eff. Oct 1 2025
Status: contested — federal remedies closed; states are recreating them. Whether a state may is being tested in U.S. v. Illinois.
One of nine.
Not the whole fight.
See where your state stands on all nine limits, or read the model bill section that closes this one.
Check your state → ← Back to the Nine