The following excerpt is from Miller v. Rufion, Civil No. 08cv01233-BTM(WMC) (E.D. Cal. 2011):
The Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. 1983 ("Section 1983"), creates a procedure to vindicate federal rights violations. See Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 393-94 (1989) ("[Section] 1983 'is not itself a source of substantive rights, ' but merely provides 'a method for vindicating federal rights elsewhere conferred' ") (citation omitted). "A person 'subjects' another to the deprivation of a constitutional right, within the meaning of section 1983, if he does an affirmative act, participates in another's affirmative acts, or omits to perform an act which he is legally required to do that causes the deprivation of which
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