Five years after the death of George Floyd, the demands on the reform of qualified immunity are largely silent

Washington-and the death of George Floyd by a police officer in May 2020 gave a crossing obligation to reform the legal defense known as “qualified immunity”, which police officers can also protect if they have violated the constitution.

The invoices were introduced in the congress in which he asked to abolish the defense.

Several cases were stacked at the Supreme Court, which the judges asked to intervene.

A lot of ink was buried.

And then nothing happened.

With the fifth anniversary of Floyd's death this weekend, the congress has not yet passed any laws that have abolished a reformed, let alone abolished. The Supreme Court rejected dozens of cases to do the same.

The minor changes caused by court leave or state legislative action have hardly any practical effects nationwide.

For Karen Blum, professor at Suffolk University Law School in Boston and long -term critic of qualified immunity, the situation is nothing less than depressing.

“After George Floyd it was the first time that I was actually optimistic and very positive that something would be done, no matter how little,” she said. “But nothing, I don't mean anything, happened.”

The doctrine, which was first passed by the Supreme Court in 1967, gives government officials the advantage of doubt if they violate the constitution.

When a plaintiff submits a state of civil rights, the accused – including police officers who are exposed to temporary forces after the 4th amendment to the constitution, and argue that at the time of the alleged violation that his actions are unconstitutional, he is not “clearly defined”. If qualified immunity is granted, the lawsuit is rejected and the plaintiffs never have the chance to either negotiate or go to court.

In 2020, an investigation by Reuters showed that the judges increasingly granted qualified immunity about the Supreme Court.

The law enforcement community expressly defends the concept and explains that it is necessary to be civil servants who are in good faith to give trust, to make divided decisions, often under extremely dangerous circumstances.

The fraternal command of the police, a national group that represents law enforcement officers, did not respond to inquiries about comments.

Unemployed cases

Floyd's killing by Derek Chauvin, a police officer in Minneapolis, triggered an immediate national debate about police violence, especially against black men.

But there was already a calm, interdemal exertion to reform a qualified immunity, which was supported by strange bed makers such as the left-wing American bivil-free and the libertarian Cato Institute. Before the Supreme Court, they had submitted investigations to persuade the judges to take a new look at the doctrine and change them – or perhaps to ward off them as a whole.

For a few weeks in the summer of 2020, the protests of racial justice considered both the Supreme Court and the Congress whether measures should be taken.

The Court quickly implemented the problem and took back in June 2020 to hear a number of cases in which a new review of qualified immunity was requested.

Ten days later, the democratically controlled House of Representatives adopted the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, including a number of police reform measures on qualified immunity and other questions. But it hit the headwind in the Republican -controlled Senate and lost dynamics.

“Republican relentivity was the real explanation there, and I see no reason to assume that this has changed for the better,” said Clark Neily, lawyer at the Cato Institute.

MP Hank Johnson, D-GA., The co-sponsor of George Floyd legislation, said that there were plans to reintroduce them during the current congress, but that he “had no trust” that it would get a traction with the republicans who check both chambers.

“We will come in this country at a time when we will adopt this legislation,” he said.

In the meantime, the courts still have to grant police officers and other government officials who have qualified immunity in cases with shocking demands:

• Police officers who support a paramedic in Fresno, California, held a man in a most susceptible position until he died, even after he had told them that he could not breathe.
• Police officers in Pineville, North Carolina, fired several shots on a man who filled her commands to drop a firearm.
• Prison officers in a facility in Columbia, South Carolina, could not intervene when two men murdered four of their co -breeds.

However, there were small signs of incremental change.

Some judges have criticized the way qualified immunity was used and joined one handful that did the same before 2020. This approach has immersed themselves in some recent decisions that say those who follow the case law.

Chris Balch, a lawyer in Georgia who represents police stations in such cases, said that the thumb on the civil servant's scale has “reduced in the past five years”, which means that defense lawyers have to be ready to go to court.

He quoted a judgment of the 11th US Court of Appeal based in Atlanta in January 2024, who refused to qualify a prison recording officer after a black inmate, who had revealed, stabbed a white man for racially motivated reasons and then murdered his white cellmate.

There was also a glimmer of hope for reform lawyers at the Supreme Court, which in November 2020 decided in favor of one in Texas prison that was recorded under dirty conditions. The judges stormed a lower dish that said qualified immunity protected prison officers.

After the reform efforts had failed in the congress, there was briefly a concerted effort to issue laws at the state level that would create an alternative way to sue the civil servants according to the laws of these states, which means that qualified immunity is not available as a defense. Although a handful of states had enacted such laws, the campaign pushed significant resistance elsewhere.

The re -election of President Donald Trump has recently swung the pendulum in the other direction in the national political arena.

When Trump signed a Pro-LAW enforcement regulations last month, he emphasized how important it is to ensure that the officials are not legally responsible for their actions.

The arrangement states that the Trump management will take measures to “provide legal resources and compensation for law enforcement officers who are wrongly arising and asking for expenses and liabilities” and the civil servants “to strengthen and expand legal protection for civil servants”.

Harrison Fields, a spokesman for the White House, said Trump's police plan shows that he “fulfills his promise of campaign to make America safe again”. The administration undertakes to reverse “failed guidelines” that were supported by Democrats, he added.

Against this background, Blum, the qualified immunity critic, remains pessimistic that there will soon be a big change.

“Qualified immunity is here to stay,” she said.