Qualified Immunity

RicInOR · Oct 15, 2021

We hear this all the time in the news. So and So from government agency gets qualified immunity, so victims can't sue them.

"Created by the Supreme Court in 1982 for policy reasons, qualified immunity is a legal doctrine that shields all government workers — not just police — by default from federal constitutional lawsuits. Here's how it works: If your constitutional rights are violated, the government workers who violated them cannot be sued (the "immunity" part) unless you can point to an earlier court case in your area holding that nearly identical conduct was unconstitutional (the "qualified" part). That means that government agents can knowingly and intentionally violate your rights, and you cannot sue them, thanks to qualified immunity. "

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/10/08/virginians-deserve-hear-truth-about-qualified-immunity/

To further complicate matters for victims, even tiny differences from previous cases can lead judges to declare that a specific rights violation was not "clearly established." In one case, a prison guard who pepper-sprayed an inmate without justification was granted immunity because, though other cases had found that punching, tasing or striking inmates with a baton without justification was a rights violation, none of those cases involved pepper spray specifically.

The human consequences of this judge-made doctrine are staggering. Take the story of Shaniz West, an Idaho mother who returned home one day to find her house surrounded by law enforcement officials. After learning that police were looking for her former boyfriend, West informed the officers that the house was empty but gave them her keys and permission to search the house.

The officers instead bombarded the house with tear-gas grenades, destroying it and all of West's possessions in the process. The house's only occupant at the time was West's dog, Blue, who somehow survived the siege. When West tried to sue the police for unnecessarily destroying her home and belongings, courts granted the officers qualified immunity, explaining that no earlier case specifically informed police that West's permission to enter her home with a key and search didn't include shelling it with noxious gas from outside. Unfortunately, when West appealed the case to the Supreme Court with the help of the Institute for Justice, the court declined to intervene.

Thanks to qualified immunity and similar legal protections that shield government workers from accountability, victims of constitutional abuses find courthouse doors slammed shut when they try to seek justice.

Project on Immunity and Accountability - Institute for Justice

Qualified immunity and other legal doctrines let government workers violate constitutional rights with impunity. IJ works to eliminate these barriers to accountability.

www.ij.org