Townsend

MEMORANDUM **

A state court jury awarded Murphy $2.6 million in damages. Meanwhile, Murphy’s parallel federal action for violation of his civil rights ( 42 U.S.C. § 1983 ) was proceeding at a slower pace. In due course, the state court of appeals reversed Murphy’s state court judgment, and the district court granted summary judgment for the defendants. Murphy appeals, and we affirm.

Following a rancorous election campaign for the office of sheriff, in which Murphy was the loser, he sued the state pharmacy board, various county officials, and the county government, as their employer, in the two courts. Both cases were founded on the same facts: Certain state and local officials, pursuant to statutory authority, at the suggestion of a pharmacist, had pursued an investigation of Murphy’s purchases of prescription drugs.

The investigators examined, without warrants, but under the color of statutory authority, the sales records of every pharmacy in a three-city area. The investigation, which included interviews with pharmacists, revealed that Murphy had filled 258 prescriptions for controlled substances in eight different pharmacies over a period of seventeen months. This…