LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The ACLU of Kentucky, along with pro bono co-counsel Covington & Burling, filed a brief on Friday January 17, 2025, appealing the lower court’s dismissal of their clients’ claims. The brief argues Kentucky’s one-year statute of limitations is too short to be consistent with the federal principles underlying Section 1983.
In May 2020, the Wright family was together in their home when six Louisville Metro Police Department (“LMPD”) officers demanded they exit, ransacked their home, held them at gunpoint, and took them into custody based on a faulty search warrant. The Wrights filed suit, in a timely manner, for the physical and mental trauma resulting from this unlawful execution of the warrant under the federal remedy purposely designed to hold state actors accountable for such civil rights violations.
The Wright family meanwhile attempted to uncover the names of the officers who invaded their home and amend their complaint to list them as defendants. But despite eventually doing so, the district court dismissed the Wrights’ amended complaint based on expiration of the one-year limitations period.
“A central principle of our civil rights laws is that they should be able to have their day in court if the state violates their rights,” said Corey Shapiro, legal director for the ACLU of Kentucky. “The too-brief limitations period ignores how complex civil rights litigation can become, and robs victims of their ability to seek relief.”
The statute of limitations in Kentucky is tied with Tennessee and Puerto Rico for the shortest in the nation. The people of Kentucky are entitled to defend their civil rights in court, and should be afforded a reasonable amount of time to do so.
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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Kentucky is freedom's watchdog, working daily in the courts, legislature, and communities to defend individual rights and personal freedoms. For additional information, visit our website at: www.aclu-ky.org.