Qualified immunity must be ended across the board : vimarsan

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In July 2016, Cleveland police officers stopped a 20-year-old Black man named Shase Howse. According to Howse, police slammed him to the ground, struck him twice in the back of his neck while he was trying to enter his own home, and took him to jail. Howse subsequently sued the police officers for using excessive force. But because of a judicially created doctrine called qualified immunity, the officers were not held accountable. In all too many cases like these, justice could have been served, if it were not for qualified immunity.
In 1967, the Supreme Court created from whole cloth the legal doctrine of qualified immunity, and it has repeatedly expanded the defense ever since. As the doctrine currently exists, government officials, including police officers, cannot be held personally liable for their official misconduct unless they have violated a constitutional right that was “clearly established” at the time of the violation. In practice, this has become very difficult because plaintiffs are practically always required to identify prior case law involving nearly identical fact patterns. Even in cases in which the defendant’s actions were obviously unconstitutional, the plaintiff is often denied relief and the government official escapes accountability.

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