Joanna Schwartz on how law enforcement "became untouchable."Qualified immunity was first created by the Supreme Court in 1967. Qualified immunity is supposed to ensure that government employees have proper warning of what conduct violates the Constitution. But government officials can still receive qualified immunity even when they violate their own training. In effect, it assumes that police officers are reading case law in their spare time.Overcoming qualified immunity doesn't mean you've won your case; it gives you the right to take your claim to trial and ask a jury to determine if damages are deserved. Attorneys who work on such cases receive compensation on a contingency basis, which means they only get paid if they win, another factor that protects against frivolous suits clogging the courts.While the doctrine applies to state and local actors, federal cops receive an even more robust set of protections and are shielded by what essentially amounts to absolute immunity."It may be that people's rights are violated less frequently now than 10 or 20 years ago…. But it remains true also that our systems for holding police accountable in those circumstances in which they violate the law and people's rights really fails to offer justice to a meaningful percentage of those people," says Schwartz. "This is the moment to look at all the information and design a better future."
