Constitutional & Civil Rights in Other Contexts
Murphy v. Justices of the Peace, No. 24-1710, 2025 WL 2848986 (3d Cir. Oct. 9, 2025).
- In a long running federal lawsuit against one of the constitutional courts of the State of Delaware, holding that Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to the actions of state court systems, including court constables giving notice of evictions to blind tenants.
- This case squarely presented the question of: when a state court system gives a blind citizen the prior notice required by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, must that notice be in a form that the blind can read and understand? Must notice to a blind person notify? Here, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit answered that question with a resounding ‘yes,’ holding that Title II of the ADA and section 504 of the Rehab Act require exactly that.
- Arising out of the eviction of the wrong family–a blind widower and his young daughters–during a snowstorm, this civil rights and constitutional law case was filed in March 2021, asserting legal claims under Title II of the ADA and the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments.
- As the Third Circuit described the facts: upon arriving to execute the eviction –
The constables observed that Murphy was blind and acknowledged that he was not Viola Wilson, the person named in the eviction order…. Murphy provided his lease to the constables… The constables…called their supervisor for guidance…[who] told them to remove all persons… The constables gave the Murphys thirty minutes to vacate the[ir home] and left them on the street during a snowstorm. The Murphys were forced to leave behind most of their possessions, including an urn containing the ashes of Murphy’s late wife (his daughters’ mother) and the laptop computers his minor daughters were using for their schooling (which was fully remote due to the COVID-19 pandemic). One of the constables assured the others, “If anything goes wrong, I will take the fall for it.”
- Applying both Title II of the ADA and section 504 of the Rehab Act, the Third Circuit continued and held that –
The constables gave Murphy written notice of the eviction that Murphy could not read because of his blindness. Despite knowing this, the constables evicted the Murphys anyway. That denied the Murphys the benefit of a service, program or activity that the constables provide: 24 hours notice before an eviction….
Federal law required them to ‘make reasonable modifications’ … [but] the constables refused Murphy’s request to stop the eviction when he had not been given notice in a form understandable to a person with blindness.
- In October 2025, the Third Circuit remanded the case to the District Court so the Justices of the Peace could finally Answer the First Amended Complaint and discovery could begin.
- Given the case involves a constitutional court of the State of Delaware knowingly evicting the wrong family, a blind widower and his minor children no less, out into a snowstorm, during COVID, during an active eviction moratorium that had been enacted by both the Delaware Governor and the same Delaware judiciary, it has received extensive media attention: October 2025 (WHYY-PBS, TNJ, WDEL); March 2024 (WHYY, WDEL, TNJ); March 2021 (TNJ, WDEL, WHYY); and February 2021 (WDEL, TNJ).
Kingsley v. Hendrickson, 576 U.S. 389 (2015). Here the Firm submitted an amicus brief on the issue of the proper legal standard to apply to the excessive force claims of pretrial detainees under the Fourteenth Amendment. The Supreme Court ultimately adopted the objective reasonableness standard argued for in the amicus brief.
Chadwick v. Janecka, 312 F.3d 597 (3d Cir. 2002) (federal habeas corpus for civil contemnor).
DiSabatino v. Salicete, 671 A.2d 1344 (Del. 1995) (en banc) (claim that Family Court contempt proceedings violated due process).
Acierno v. New Castle County, 40 F.3d 645 (3d Cir. 1994) (claim for denial of constitutional rights in connection with denial of building permit and preliminary injunction compelling issuance of permit).
Acierno v. Cloutier, 40 F.3d 597 (3d Cir. 1994) (claims for violation of Equal Protection in property zoning dispute and claims to deny defendants legislative and qualified immunity).
Rappa v. New Castle County, 18 F.3d 1043 (3d Cir. 1994) (First Amendment free speech case in which an entire chapter of the Delaware Code was invalidated for infringing political speech).
Jung Been Suh v. Immigration and Naturalization Service, 592 F.2d 230 (5th Cir. 1979) (deportation of a foreign investor stopped because of illegal governmental actions).