In 1989, the Supreme Court found in DeShaney v. Winnebago County Department of Social Services that State officials have no obligation to protect private citizens from violence or injury caused by other private citizens. DeShaney v. Winnebago Cnty. Dept. of Soc. Services, 489 U.S. 189, 194 (1989) (finding county authorities not liable when a child in its custody was seriously injured by his father). Writing for the Court, Chief Justice Rehnquist explained the Due Process Clause limits a state’s power to deprive individuals of “life, liberty, and property without due process,” but does not create an affirmative duty to protect individuals. Id. at 194, (quoting U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 1). Thus, state actors cannot be held liable for harm caused to private citizens under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. However, in DeShaney, the Court identified two possible exceptions in which a private citizen may be entitled to protection. The first, known as the Special Relationship Exception, is often applied when a state incarcerates, institutionalizes, or restrains a person involuntarily. DeShaney, 489 U.S. at 198-99; see Christopher M. Eisenhauer, Police Action and the State-Created Danger Doctrine: a Proposed Uniform Test, 120 DICK. L. REV. 893 (2016).

The Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause provides that no State shall “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of the law.” A caveat to this right is that incarcerated individuals are not guaranteed its full scope. Because of their limited liberty rights, solitary confinement has been successfully implemented in a number of both state and federal prisons throughout the United States. In the summer of 2021, more than 6,000 inmates had been in solitary confinement for over a year. As of this week, over 10,000 inmates in federal prison alone are being held in solitary confinement.

The current circuit court split lies in whether there should be a minimum length for the duration of confinement to be considered an atypical hardship giving rise to a liberty interest.

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution protects an individual's right to free speech and the free exercise of their religion. However, the Circuit Courts have disagreed on the line between religious freedom, free speech, and a state’s ability to protect its minor citizens from harmful practices.

Conversion therapy is a discredited therapeutic practice that seeks to change an individual’s sexual orientation from gay or bisexual to heterosexual and an individual’s gender identity from transgender or non-binary to cisgender. Mainstream psychological experts have denounced conversion therapy. The American Psychological Association states that “[conversion therapy] puts individuals at a significant risk of harm.”

Discriminatory intent claims involve proving that an intentional action, motivated by a discriminatory purpose, caused harm. This is sometimes also called disparate treatment. In contrast, a disparate impact claim can be brought when no intentional discrimination is apparent, but the outcomes of an action have negatively impacted a protected class. In the case of the Americans with Disabilities Act and its amendments in Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1974, this protected class is individuals with disabilities.