A group of Democratic lawmakers, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey and Rep. Ayanna Pressley, are introducing legislation to end qualified immunity and open up law enforcement officers to civil liability.
The doctrine of qualified immunity “for too long has shielded law enforcement from accountability and denied recourse for the countless families robbed of their loved ones,” Pressley said. “There can be no justice without healing and accountability, and there can be no true accountability with qualified immunity.”
Pressley first joined former Michigan Rep. Justin Amash to introduce a similar version of the legislation last year as an amendment to the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. But the amendment never made it into the final legislation as lawmakers opted for a version that opened up officers to the possibility of having to pay damages in civil suits, which current law protects officers from.
Qualified immunity has come under fire in the wake of Floyd’s death in police custody last year in Minneapolis, with critics saying the doctrine shields law enforcement officers from facing the consequences of police brutality.
“It’s time we end the outdated and judge-made doctrine of qualified immunity and start delivering accountability for the officers who abuse their positions of trust and responsibility in our communities,” Markey said of the effort. “There will not be true racial justice until we end qualified immunity.”
Republicans have been split on the issue of qualified immunity, with some signaling an openness to reform the doctrine but not eliminate it altogether.
“I’m for anything that enhances personal responsibility, accountability, and transparency,” said Sen. Mike Braun, who introduced legislation to reform the legal protection over the summer. “When I talk about reforming it, it’s this simple: make sure that in these egregious instances, that there is accountability, and you’re not protected, just like you aren’t in other elements of society. And make sure that you’re not hampering already the toughest job that’s out there with frivolous lawsuits. And I think that can be done.”
Markey, however, called the efforts to water down ending the doctrine “bad-faith attempts from people in the pockets of special interests spreading misinformation to undermine our progress on ending qualified immunity, and we will not back down in our pursuit of true justice and accountability.”
Markey insists that fully abolishing qualified immunity is the only option.
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“The lives that are lost to excessive force and police brutality are not half-lives, so there can be no half measures to ending qualified immunity,” Markey said. “Full accountability means abolishing qualified immunity once and for all. We owe it to the families of those who have been murdered to provide them this full measure of justice.”
