Legal immunity for police misconduct, under attack from left and right, may get Supreme Court review

[LiberalArkie]

WASHINGTON – The brutal death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police has re-energized a national debate over misconduct by law enforcement officials that the Supreme Court may be poised to enter.

The justices could announce as early as Monday that they will consider whether law enforcement and other officials continue to deserve "qualified immunity" that protects them from being sued for official actions.

The high court itself established that protection in a series of decisions dating back several decades, letting police off the hook unless their behavior violated "clearly established" laws or constitutional rights. Lower courts have used that standard to uphold almost any actions not specifically forbidden.

But in recent years, justices, lower court judges and scholars on both the left and right have questioned that legal doctrine for creating a nearly impossible standard for victims to meet and a nearly blanket immunity for those accused of misconduct.

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https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/05/29/police-misconduct-supreme-court-reconsider-qualified-immunity/5275816002/

[lark]

1. I absolutely cannot cheer anything being taken up by this RW joke of a SCOTUS.

They utterly disdain the constitution & ignore it completely except for how they can twist it to their demented hate filled thinking. They are part and parcel of the RW push for a total dictatorship of the rich

[duforsure]

2. If trump has absolute power, and he is above the law,

From their rulings soon , he will be able to enable others to do as he pleases without any consequences. It'll be criminals gone wild soon from the Supreme Court rulings if they give him absolute power to do as he pleases, or allow others to do as he pleases too , and like Putin does in Russia now.