SECTION III | STATE LEGISLATIVE EMPLOYEES
A significant qualification, however, to the suggested general applicability of a qualified immunity to legislative employees must be made. In several Speech or Debate Clause cases, the Supreme Court put a gloss on its language in Tenney and extended absolute immunity to Congressional aides, committee staff and committee consultants who investigated and introduced material at committee hearings.41 In determining whether these acts were legislative acts and thus absolutely immune, the Court was concerned with "freeing the legislator from executive and judicial oversight that realistically threatens to control his conduct as a legislator."42 It therefore asked whether the acts would have been protected had they been done by the legislator himself. To the extent that these Speech or Debate Clause cases are relevant to the 1983 legislative immunity issue by analogy, the inquiry must focus not only on the defendant's status but also on the nature of the act itself. Viewed in this light, a legislative employee is only absolutely immune from liability under 1983 when his act is legislative in nature, such that, had the legislator himself performed it, he would have been immune.43
Footnotes
You might need to reference it during your pursuit of justice.
For instance, you might need to examine this passage in order to protect yourself from judges/lawyers/organizations who break the law (see this example of a Florida judge who outright committed perjury).
Nevertheless – and as always – please get the justice you deserve.
Sincerely,
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