Memphis Community School District v. Stachura
Supreme Court
477 U.S. 299 (1986)
Stachura (plaintiff), a tenured teacher, showed sexually explicit pictures and films to his seventh-grade class and was suspended by the Memphis Community School District (defendant). He sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for deprivation of liberty and property without due process. The jury, following the trial court's instructions, awarded not just compensatory and punitive damages but additional compensatory damages based on the jury's own sense of the value or importance of the constitutional rights that were violated. The court of appeals affirmed, and the Supreme Court granted certiorari limited to the damages issue.
Whether, in a constitutional tort claim, a court may award compensatory damages based on the jury's own assessment of the abstract value or importance of the constitutional right violated.