Disir
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When two Nashville police officers responded to a home burglary report in 2014, they found Alexander Baxter hiding in a basement. Baxter put his hands in the air. Nevertheless, the police unleashed a K-9 unit, which bit Baxter under his armpit.
Baxter sued the officers for excessive force, but in 2018 the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that, whether or not Baxter’s rights were violated, the officers were immune from his lawsuit. It wasn’t clearly established, the court said, that using a police dog to apprehend him while his hands were raised was unconstitutional.
The decision hinged on a notorious doctrine, known as “qualified immunity,” that protects police from lawsuits when reasonable officers wouldn’t know they were committing a constitutional violation. Now the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is asking the Supreme Court to reconsider not just Baxter’s case but the entire doctrine of qualified immunity, which has faced a growing bipartisan chorus of criticism.
The ACLU today filed a petition for a writ of certiorari asking the Supreme Court to not only review Baxter’s case but revisit the current standard for qualified immunity. “The costs of qualified immunity to the rule of law are real and significant,” the ACLU writes. “Because qualified immunity relies centrally on the question of when the unlawfulness of particular conduct has been ‘clearly established’—an inquiry for which a consistent standard has eluded federal courts for a generation—the jurisprudence of qualified immunity is beset with inconsistency.”
As The New Republic recently noted, qualified immunity has recently come under criticism from both originalist and liberal judges. On the Supreme Court itself, arch-conservative Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in 2017 that qualified immunity should be revisited in an appropriate case, and while liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor has bemoaned its effects on lawsuits over police shootings.
Police Sicced a Dog on a Surrendering Man. Will the Supreme Court Review the Doctrine That Gave Them Immunity?
This will be interesting to watch.
Baxter sued the officers for excessive force, but in 2018 the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that, whether or not Baxter’s rights were violated, the officers were immune from his lawsuit. It wasn’t clearly established, the court said, that using a police dog to apprehend him while his hands were raised was unconstitutional.
The decision hinged on a notorious doctrine, known as “qualified immunity,” that protects police from lawsuits when reasonable officers wouldn’t know they were committing a constitutional violation. Now the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is asking the Supreme Court to reconsider not just Baxter’s case but the entire doctrine of qualified immunity, which has faced a growing bipartisan chorus of criticism.
The ACLU today filed a petition for a writ of certiorari asking the Supreme Court to not only review Baxter’s case but revisit the current standard for qualified immunity. “The costs of qualified immunity to the rule of law are real and significant,” the ACLU writes. “Because qualified immunity relies centrally on the question of when the unlawfulness of particular conduct has been ‘clearly established’—an inquiry for which a consistent standard has eluded federal courts for a generation—the jurisprudence of qualified immunity is beset with inconsistency.”
As The New Republic recently noted, qualified immunity has recently come under criticism from both originalist and liberal judges. On the Supreme Court itself, arch-conservative Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in 2017 that qualified immunity should be revisited in an appropriate case, and while liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor has bemoaned its effects on lawsuits over police shootings.
Police Sicced a Dog on a Surrendering Man. Will the Supreme Court Review the Doctrine That Gave Them Immunity?
This will be interesting to watch.
