US Supreme Court refuses to assess qualified immunity for police
US Supreme Court has avoided a chance to assess the scope of a legal defense called qualified immunity. It has increasingly been used to protect police who were accused of excessive force, turning away an appeal by a Cleveland man who was sued after being roughed up by police while trying to enter his house.
The justices have refused to hear the appeal by Shase Howse, who said he was banged to the ground outside his house. There he stayed with his mother in a poor and mostly Black neighborhood, he was struck in the back of the neck and prisoned after police deemed his actions skeptical. Howse is a black american and was 20 year old at that time, the policeman involved was white.
Qualified immunity acts as a shield for the policemen and other government officials from civil litigation in certain circumstances, allowing lawsuits only when an individual’s “clearly established” statutory or constitutional rights have been violated.
The U.S. House of Representatives last Wednesday passed policing reform legislation that among other provisions would eliminate the qualified immunity defense for law enforcement. The legislation, supported by most Democrats and opposed by Republicans, faces an uphill battle in the Senate.
