The New York Times recently published a new article on recent developments that suggest the Supreme Court may be open to trimming the qualified immunity doctrine that shields police officers from lawsuits. The article focuses on the Court’s recent decisions in two cases involving prisoners in Texas.
“ For years, the Supreme Court has been hostile to lawsuits from victims of police violence, prisoners subjected to appalling cruelty and others who sought to sue government officials for violations of their constitutional rights.
That might be starting to change. In recent rulings, one terse and the other cryptic, the justices ordered an appeals court to reconsider the cases of two prisoners in Texas, prompting debate about whether the Supreme Court is ready to trim the doctrine of qualified immunity.
The doctrine has been the subject of scathing criticism across the ideological spectrum, and it became a flash point in the nationwide uproar last summer over police brutality, with activists and lawmakers calling for its reconsideration…
The two recent cases came from three-judge panels of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans, both dominated by Republican appointees.”
Read the entire New York Times piece on qualified immunity here.