Greenawalt, v. Indiana Department Of Corrections

397 F.3d 587 (7th Cir. 2005)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Two years after P was hired by D as a research analyst, she was told that to keep her job she would have to submit to a psychological examination. P complied and later brought suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against Ds, the Department, and two of its officials--her immediate supervisor and the official who had ordered her to take the test. P claimed that the two hours and inquired into details of her personal life and thus, constituted an unreasonable search in violation of her Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. P also claimed that requiring her to take it if she wanted to keep her job both invaded her privacy and deliberately inflicted emotional distress on her and so violated Indiana's common law of torts. P asked for damages plus an injunction that would require Ds to expunge the results of the test from her personnel file. The district judge dismissed the suit ruling that the Department of Corrections (D) could not be sued under section 1983 because it is not a 'person' within the meaning of that statute and that the suit against the individual defendants was barred by the doctrine of official immunity because the right that the plaintiff was seeking to enforce had not been clearly established in the case law when she brought the suit. After dismissing P's federal claims, the judge relinquished jurisdiction over her state-law claims. P appealed.