A U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit opinion joined sister circuits in overruling the court’s own 1996 ruling in Federation of African American Contractors v. City of Oakland, now concluding that a plaintiff seeking to enforce rights secured by §1981 against a state actor must bring a cause of action under 42 U.S.C. §1983.

The Ninth Circuit vacated the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii’s decision in Yoshikawa v. Seguirant, which denied a qualified immunity claim brought under 42 U.S.C. §1981, according to the opinion. The court now held that §1981 does not provide an implied cause of action against state actors, bringing it in line with sister circuits.