“Not every remedy must be available in each case to achieve these goals, but the absence of any remedy for unconstitutional conduct in a significant numbers of cases will operate to deprive individuals of redress for injuries suffered, and, more significantly, will signal a tolerance of unconstitutional practices that will erode the structure of governmental accountability and respect for civil rights and civil liberties. Even more troublesome, if remedies are denied on the theory that officials who violate rights have acted reasonably, in some circumstances officials may conform their conduct to the sub-constitutional norms reflected in the reasonable, but illegal conduct that the courts have immunized.”
Source: David Rudovsky. Running In Place: The Paradox of Expanding Rights and Restricted Remedies. University of Illinois Law Review 5: 1199, 1206. 2005.
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