Defendant's Selective-Enforcement Suit Time-Barred Under Wallace

In Dique v. New Jersey State Police, No. 05-1159, the Third Circuit dealt with a plaintiff's Fourteenth Amendment claim for selective-enforcement, arising from his 1990 traffic stop that led to his conviction for drug related offenses which was vacated in 2002 on the ground that colorable issues of racial profiling existed at the time of the arrest.

As stated in the decision: "The Court held that "the statute of limitations upon a section 1983 claim seeking damages for a false arrest in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, where the arrest is followed by criminal proceedings, begins to run at the time the claimant becomes detained pursuant to legal process."

Thus, in affirming the district court's dismissal of the claim as time barred, the court held that under Wallace v. Kato, 549 U.S. 384 (2007), in a case of selective-enforcement, it will no longer be required that the complainant have been convicted and have had that conviction reversed, expunged or invalidated, and the statute of limitations begins to run at the time the claimant becomes detained pursuant to legal process.  In this case, the plaintiff asserted his selective-enforcement claim over two years after July 2001, when his attorney became aware of the extensive documents describing the State's pervasive selective enforcement practices, that plaintiff discovered, or by exercise of reasonable diligence should have discovered that he might have a basis for an actionable claim.    

Related Resource:

• Full text of Dique v. New Jersey State Police