A Mississippi federal judge issued a scathing opinion Tuesday urging the Supreme Court to revisit qualified immunity, a legal doctrine created nearly 40 years ago that the judge argues is shielding law enforcement and government officials from accountability, CNN reports. “Tragically, thousands have died at the hands of law enforcement over the years, and the death toll continues to rise,” said U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves in an opinion that started with examples of cases including those of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Breonna Taylor. “Countless more have suffered from other forms of abuse and misconduct by police…Qualified immunity has served as a shield for these officers, protecting them from accountability.”
Legal scholars, judges, and justices on all sides of the ideological spectrum have criticized the doctrine known as qualified immunity, arguing that it is not grounded in the proper legal authorities and it too often shields officials from accountability. Under the doctrine, an officer will not be liable even if he violated the Constitution unless it was “clearly established” by prior cases that his conduct was unconstitutional. That makes it difficult to win unless the situation is similar to a prior case with nearly identical facts. In the weeks after George Floyd’s death, amid calls to abolish qualified immunity, the Supreme Court declined to take up the issue and punted the issue to Congress. The case that Reeves heard involved Clarence Jamison, a Black man pulled over for a traffic stop. Reeves said Jamison was pulled over and subjected “to one hundred and ten minutes of an armed police officer badgering him, pressuring him, lying to him, and then searching his car top-to-bottom for drugs.” The judge said “nothing was found” because “Jamison isn’t a drug courier. He’s a welder.” The officer was granted qualified immunity.