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Police Misconduct- Yet another federal judge tears into qualified immunity, citing Cato Institute & Will Baude September 21, 2018The legal blogosphere has been abuzz with Judge Willett’s recent “dubitante” concurrence in Zadeh v. Robinson, in which the Twitter superstar and Supreme Court shortlister urged reconsideration of the judge-made doctrine of qualified immunity. Yet just one day before that decision was released, another federal judge — James O. Browning, in the District of New […]
- The campaign against qualified immunity is steadily expanding September 13, 2018You would be hard pressed to find an issue that unites a wider and more diverse set of allies than opposition to qualified immunity. Justices Thomas and Sotomayor (joined by Justice Ginsburg) have both criticized the doctrine, as have a growing chorus of diverse lower-court judges — including newly appointed Judge Don Willett, of the […]
- The Tenth Circuit’s cowardly refusal to decide whether 20 years in solitary violated prisoner’s constitutional rights August 30, 2018Solitary confinement is one of the cruelest, most severe conditions that our criminal justice system may impose on prisoners. The combination of tiny cells (sealed to block all outside light and sound), lack of human interaction, and extremely limited access to the outside world add up to a treatment that is a mere stone’s throw […]
- The Basics of Qualified Immunity: The Four U’s July 6, 2018Qualified immunity is a legal doctrine invented out of whole cloth by the U.S. Supreme Court that protects government agents, including particularly law enforcement officers, who violate someone’s constitutional rights from federal civil liability. This website is dedicated to explaining how and why the qualified immunity doctrine needs to be eliminated. There are many technical […]
- What Happened to PoliceMisconduct.net? July 1, 2018The National Police Misconduct Reporting Project (NPMRP) and PoliceMisconduct.net (PM.net) were the products of a non-governmental, non-partisan project by the Cato Institute. NPMRP attempted to determine the extent of police misconduct in the United States, identify trends affecting police misconduct, and report on issues about police misconduct in order to enhance public awareness on issues […]
- Openings in the Front in the Campaign Against Qualified Immunity June 12, 2018I’ve blogged several times now about Cato’s ongoing campaign to challenge the doctrine of qualified immunity. This judge-made doctrine — invented out of whole cloth, at odds with the text of Section 1983, and unsupported by the common-law history against which that statute was passed — shields public officials from liability for unlawful misconduct, unless the plaintiff […]
- Challenging Qualified Immunity for Prison Officials Who Kept a Man in Solitary for No Reason May 29, 2018Our primary federal civil rights statute, colloquially called “Section 1983,” says that any state actor who violates someone’s constitutional rights may be sued in federal court. This remedy is crucial not just to secure relief for individuals whose rights are violated, but also to ensure accountability for government agents. Yet the Supreme Court has crippled […]
- “There Is Nothing Right or Just under the Law about This” April 2, 2018Qualified immunity is a doctrine that can shield police officers and other public officials from civil suits when they violate individual rights in the course of their official duties. According to the doctrine, courts are supposed to first determine whether an individual’s right was violated and then proceed to determine whether the violation was “clearly […]
- Qualified Immunity: The Supreme Court’s Unlawful Assault on Civil Rights and Police Accountability March 5, 2018Our primary federal civil rights statute, colloquially called “Section 1983,” says that any state actor who violates someone’s constitutional rights may be sued in federal court. This remedy is crucial not just to secure relief for individuals whose rights are violated, but also to ensure accountability for government agents. Yet the Supreme Court has crippled […]
- Looking Beyond Racist Police Officers August 11, 2017This week I made my debut at In Justice Today, a blog founded by the Fair Punishment Project at Harvard Law School. My first post warns reformers not to focus solely on individual racist officers because color-blind policies can also have terrible impacts on communities of color: While it is entirely fair to say that […]
- Yet another federal judge tears into qualified immunity, citing Cato Institute & Will Baude September 21, 2018
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