Pressley and Markey again push to end qualified immunity, let people sue police officers
WASHINGTON - Rep. Ayanna Pressley and Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts are again pushing to allow people to sue police officers as well as state and local government officials.
The "Ending Qualified Immunity Act" would "Permit civil lawsuits against public officials, in their personal capacity, to hold them accountable for their wrongdoing," the lawmakers said.
As CBS News reported, qualified immunity came to the forefront of the debate on policing in 2020, following the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. Decades ago the Supreme Court created qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that protects government officials and police from civil lawsuits.
"Police brutality is a crisis plaguing Black and brown communities, and a crisis that will continue to go unchecked until we end the dangerous, unjust, and court-invented doctrine of qualified immunity," Pressley said in a statement. "For too long, qualified immunity has prevented accountability and shielded those charged with enforcing the law from any consequences for breaking it."
The argument for keeping qualified immunity says law enforcement shouldn't have to worry about the possibility of a lawsuit while dealing with a potentially dangerous suspect.
"It comes down to police officers saying: 'Tell me why it is that I have to make this quick decision, use the best information I have, and if later on somebody finds that I made a mistake, I may lose my house, my pension?" former general counsel for Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association Jack Collins previously told CBS News.
Markey said law enforcement has used qualified immunity as a shield for police brutality and excessive force against people of color.
"This must end," he said in a statement. "Victims and their families are due their day in court against those officials who violate their civil rights."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Rep. Jim McGovern and Rep. Seth Moulton are among the co-sponsors of the bill. The legislation is unlikely to be passed in the Republican-controlled House.
