Courts are increasingly granting police immunity in excessive force cases


Qualified immunity has become a big concern as conversations grow surrounding police reform. And as Reuters reports, use of the controversial court doctrine has only grown as well.
The Supreme Court created qualified immunity in 1967 to protect police officers who acted in "good faith" but violated the Constitution while working in an official capacity. It lets courts stop victims of police brutality from suing officers, even over an unconstitutional act, unless their actions were "clearly established" to be unconstitutional beforehand.
To decide whether to grant a police officer's request for immunity, courts first ask whether a jury could find an officer violated the Fourth amendment and used excessive force. Courts said yes to that question in more than half of appellate cases from 2015-2019 that Reuters analyzed. But as of 2009, courts can also skip the first question altogether, and have been doing so more and more often.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Next up, courts ask whether an officer should've known the violation was unconstitutional because it was established by a previous case. If that's a yes, the case goes to trial. But if not, the office receives immunity and the case doesn't even go to a jury. That's what has happened in more than half of cases from 2015-2019, Reuters reports.
Reuters goes on to note that granting immunity is actually a growing trend. From 2005-2007, courts actually favored plaintiffs 56 percent of the time in excessive force cases. But from 2017-2019, that trend has reversed, and courts favor police 57 percent of the time. This growing reality has lawyers, civil rights advocates, politicians, and even Supreme Court justices worried the doctrine has "become a nearly failsafe tool to let police brutality go unpunished and deny victims their constitutional rights," Reuters writes. Read more at Reuters.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.
-
America's favorite fast food restaurants
The Explainer There are different ways of thinking about how Americans define how they most like to spend their money on burgers, tacos and fried chicken
-
Law: The battle over birthright citizenship
Feature Trump shifts his focus to nationwide injunctions after federal judges block his attempt to end birthright citizenship
-
The threat to the NIH
Feature The Trump administration plans drastic cuts to medical research. What are the ramifications?
-
Driver rams van into crowd at Liverpool FC parade
speed read 27 people were hospitalized following the attack
-
2 Israel Embassy staff shot dead at DC Jewish museum
speed read The suspected gunman chanted 'free, free Palestine'
-
Bombing of fertility clinic blamed on 'antinatalist'
speed read A car bombing injured four people and damaged a fertility clinic and nearby buildings in Palm Springs, California
-
Suspect charged after 11 die in Vancouver car attack
Speed Read Kai-Ji Adam Lo drove an SUV into a crowd at the Lapu Lapu Day festival
-
Kenya arrests alleged ant smugglers
speed read Two young Belgians have been charged for attempting to smuggle ants out of the country to exotic pet buyers
-
Judge ends Eric Adams case, Trump leverage
Speed Read Federal corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams were dismissed, as requested by Trump's Justice Department
-
Texas arrests midwife on felony abortion charges
Speed Read Maria Margarita Rojas and an employee at one of her clinics are the first to be criminally charged under Texas' near-total abortion ban
-
South Carolina to execute prisoner by firing squad
speed read Death row inmate Brad Sigmon prefers the squad over the electric chair or lethal injection, his lawyer said