{"id":460116,"date":"2021-04-27T16:35:30","date_gmt":"2021-04-27T20:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=460116"},"modified":"2021-04-27T16:35:33","modified_gmt":"2021-04-27T20:35:33","slug":"what-is-qualified-immunity-heres-what-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/what-is-qualified-immunity-heres-what-you-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Qualified Immunity? Here\u2019s What You Need To Know"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwhat-is-qualified-immunity-heres-what-you-need-to-know%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=460116&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-1016.jpeg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p>As\u00a0Americans\u2019 desire for police reform \u2014 as evidenced in a recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/these-6-members-of-congress-could-help-determine-the-fate-of-qualified-immunity\">Gallup poll <\/a>\u2014 continues to grow, politicians are increasingly debating the issue.<\/p>\n<p>Often, the topic of \u201cqualified immunity\u201d is brought up as an area in need of reform when it comes to policing. But what exactly is qualified immunity, and how does it fit into the law enforcement puzzle?<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s what you need to know.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is qualified immunity?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Supreme Court created the concept of \u201cqualified immunity\u201d \u2014 as it pertains now to police \u2014 in the early 1980s as a means of protecting civil servants from being sued and held personally responsible for actions that violated a person\u2019s constitutional rights, unless a court ruled those actions were \u201cclearly established\u201d and deemed unconstitutional.<\/p>\n<p>According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/ij.org\/issues\/project-on-immunity-and-accountability\/frequently-asked-questions-about-ending-qualified-immunity\/\">Institute for Justice<\/a>, \u201cqualified immunity was established in<em> Harlow v. Fitzgerald<\/em>, a case that had absolutely nothing to do with law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was brought by a whistleblower who wanted to sue Nixon White House aides for punishing him because he spoke out against a Pentagon weapons program. In\u00a0<em>Harlow<\/em>, the Supreme Court made all government workers immune from constitutional liability by default,\u201d the think thank\u2019s website states.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How does qualified immunity work?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If a person decides to bring a lawsuit against a civil servant, the plaintiff has to prove he or she fell victim to an action that was previously deemed unconstitutional and\/or illegal. If a court did not deem the action unconstitutional or illegal, qualified immunity immediately comes into play and protects the civil servant. In this case, qualified immunity protects law enforcement officers from any actions that have not been deemed unconstitutional or illegal in the past.<\/p>\n<p>The<a href=\"https:\/\/www.americanbar.org\/groups\/public_education\/publications\/insights-on-law-and-society\/volume-21\/issue-1\/qualified-immunity\/\"> American Bar Association<\/a> (ABA) says qualified immunity falls under the \u201cculture of near-zero accountability. \u201cUnder this doctrine, government agents\u2014including but not limited to police officers\u2014can never be sued for violating someone\u2019s civil rights, unless they violated \u2018clearly established law,&#8217;\u201d the ABA\u2019s website states. \u201cWhile this is an amorphous, malleable standard, it generally requires civil rights plaintiffs to show not just a clear legal <em>rule,<\/em> but a prior case with functionally identical <em>facts<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn other words, it is entirely possible\u2014and quite common\u2014for courts to hold that government agents\u00a0<i>did<\/i> violate someone\u2019s rights, but that the victim has no legal remedy, simply because that precise sort of misconduct had not occurred in past cases,\u201d the ABA says.<\/p>\n<p>These protections for qualified immunity are only in place for civil lawsuits, not criminal prosecutions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why is qualified immunity controversial?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Left and the Right disagree on qualified immunity for a number of reasons.<\/p>\n<p>Politicians on the Left say qualified immunity prevents police officers and other members of law enforcement from being held accountable for their actions. Qualified immunity prevents some families from suing individual officers when their loved ones fall victim to police brutality or excessive force, especially if the officer\u2019s actions were not already clearly defined as illegal or unconstitutional.<\/p>\n<p>The Right argues that without qualified immunity, law enforcement agencies would have a difficult time recruiting officers. The argument is officers would be reluctant to do their job without the fear of being wrongfully sued in a personal capacity.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Is there room for compromise?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>While the Left wants to completely do away with qualified immunity, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) believes he has a middle ground that both sides could compromise on. Under his plan \u2013 which Democrats roadblocked last fall \u2013 plaintiffs could bring lawsuits against specific police departments and law enforcement agencies, not individual officers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is a way to put more of the onus or the burden on the department or on the employer than on the employee. I think that is a logical step forward, and one that as I\u2019ve spoken with Karen Bass over the last several weeks, it\u2019s something that the Democrats are quite receptive to,\u201d Scott told reporters last week, according to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/police-reform-george-floyd-justice-in-policing-act-momentum\/\">CBS News.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Scott, who is leading the GOP delegation on police reform, is currently in talks with Congresswoman Karen Bass (D-CA), the Democrats\u2019 point person on this issue, about a bipartisan bill. Bass said \u201cthere\u2019s a lot of room for discussion\u201d around the idea of qualified immunity.<\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/these-6-members-of-congress-could-help-determine-the-fate-of-qualified-immunity\">These 6 Members Of Congress Could Help Determine The Fate Of Qualified Immunity<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Beth Baumann is a Political Reporter and Editor at The Daily Wire. Follow her on Twitter\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/eb454\">@eb454<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><i>The views expressed in this piece are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>member<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As\u00a0Americans\u2019 desire for police reform \u2014 as evidenced in a recent Gallup poll \u2014 continues to grow, politicians are increasingly debating the issue.Often, the topic of \u201cqualified immunity\u201d is brought &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2276857,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-1016.jpeg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"What Is Qualified Immunity? Here\u2019s What You Need To Know","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-460116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-1016.jpeg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"What Is Qualified Immunity? Here\u2019s What You Need To Know","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2276857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}