Qualified Immunity

Qualified Immunity shields government officials from being sued for actions performed within their official capacity. Qualified Immunity shields government officials from being sued for discretionary actions performed within their official capacity. What this says is as a civilian, ignorance of the law is no excuse. But if you're a government official? Well mistakes were made, but they'll give them more leeway, even for things that ruin lives. Ooops. Sorry. ℹ️ Info           ~ Aristotle Sabouni Created: 2020-06-01

What this says is that ignorance of the law is no protection for you as a civilian (Ignorantia juris non excusat), but that legislators and cops (those with power and guns) can make these mistakes and have limited immunity from prosecution or lawsuit (consequences) as long as their mistakes are "reasonable." This has been widely supported by Democrats and Police Unions, the Bar, and other leftist organizations (collectivists, authoritarians), and generally opposed by Libertarians and many conservatives (individualists).

Two Supreme Court rulings support this abuse of power protection:

• 1982: Harlow v. Fitzgerald the court decided that public servants enjoy "qualified immunity," which means that they cannot be held civilly liable for violating a person's rights unless the person's right is established "beyond dispute," and the officer violates a clearly established law that a "reasonable" officer should know. A far higher bar than civilians have in following the law.
• 2014: Heien v. North Carolina An 8-1 decision that the police needn't actually know the law – that they can enforce a mistaken understanding of the law, again, as long as their mistakes are "reasonable." So, in a colossal twist of irony, the people charged with enforcing the law are not required to know what the law is and may even use ignorance of the law as a defense.

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🔗 More

Terms We need to agree on what terms mean. This used to be easy, before SJW's/Marxists started Orwelling our language.

Rulings These are articles about the Supreme Court Rulings (or not rulings).

🔗 Links

• https://www.usnews.com/opinion/civil-wars/articles/2017-09-07/how-to-hold-police-accountable-to-the-public
• History: https://reason.com/2015/04/29/david-simon-on-how-civil-rights-were-des/
• 2020: Republican (Justin Amash) putting up another attempt at limiting Qualified Immunity: https://twitter.com/justinamash/status/1267267244029083648

Tags: Terms  Rulings