Faculty Sponsor(s)
Pattrick Cottrell
Subject Area
Law, Rights, and Justice
Description
People have been marching in the streets to speak up against police brutality, and many people care about reducing police misconduct, but not everyone knows about qualified immunity. In some cases, courts can excuse officers’ unconstitutional actions to prevent officers from being held accountable in civil proceedings. Almost all police misconduct is excused and incentivized by one legal doctrine: qualified immunity. 42 U.S. Code § 1983 states that the doctrine “protects a government official from lawsuits alleging that the official violated a plaintiff's rights, only allowing suits where officials violated a ‘clearly established’ statutory orconstitutional right.” In this essay, I am going to use an eclectic mode of argument to suggest that qualified immunity is illegitimate. The multiple methods of my eclectic argument are an originalist constitutional interpretation and an examination of the incentive structures implicated by this doctrine.
Recommended Citation
Minton, Mikayla, "Ending Law Enforcement's Accountability Crisis: The Case Against Qualified Immunity" (2023). Linfield University Student Symposium: A Celebration of Scholarship and Creative Achievement. Event. Submission 41.
https://digitalcommons.linfield.edu/symposium/2023/all/41
Ending Law Enforcement's Accountability Crisis: The Case Against Qualified Immunity
People have been marching in the streets to speak up against police brutality, and many people care about reducing police misconduct, but not everyone knows about qualified immunity. In some cases, courts can excuse officers’ unconstitutional actions to prevent officers from being held accountable in civil proceedings. Almost all police misconduct is excused and incentivized by one legal doctrine: qualified immunity. 42 U.S. Code § 1983 states that the doctrine “protects a government official from lawsuits alleging that the official violated a plaintiff's rights, only allowing suits where officials violated a ‘clearly established’ statutory orconstitutional right.” In this essay, I am going to use an eclectic mode of argument to suggest that qualified immunity is illegitimate. The multiple methods of my eclectic argument are an originalist constitutional interpretation and an examination of the incentive structures implicated by this doctrine.
