On May 20, Federal Judge Carlton Reeves issued a new opinion condemning the doctrine of qualified immunity as unlawful and unjust. In his opinion, Reeves described qualified immunity as a 'perpetuation of racial inequality' and 'an extra-constitutional affront to other cherished values of our democracy.' He criticized the Supreme Court's consistent affirmation of the doctrine, arguing that it allows government agents to violate constitutional rights with impunity. Reeves' opinion also highlights the doctrine's legal baselessness and its negative impact on policing, suggesting that it should be discarded. He likened the doctrine to a throwback to Jim Crow and criticized its impact on civil rights.
Who Is Carlton Reeves? Federal Judge Criticises US Supreme Court Over Its Definition Of Qualified Immunity https://t.co/679SB5HN9R
It’s very cool to be cited in this opinion. Judge Reeves is a thoughtful man and has been one of the staunchest opponents of #QualifiedImmunity on the federal bench. https://t.co/Jc8fl7sLJV https://t.co/TEVkDFMkPn
Should an allegedly corrupt cop be entitled to qualified immunity? https://t.co/uwT9J8oCUg
There are extraordinary judges. Judge Carleton Reeves issues tremendous qualified immunity decision https://t.co/hN6UrCtfpc
Judge Carlton Reeves' latest vivisection of "qualified immunity"—which lets violent and corrupt cops escape accountability—is nested in a broader critique of the Supreme Court's cynical and selective reliance on "democracy" to nullify our civil rights. https://t.co/tDWpkUvyJL
SCOTUS: 1. Qualified immunity's plausibly derived from the text of §1983 (False) 2. QI ensures fair notice before cops are held liable (False) 3. QI protects cops from ruinous judgments (False) 4. QI's necessary for cops who make split-second decisions (False) What else you got?
Besides being lawless, qualified immunity is also profoundly immoral. Judge Reeves does an extraordinary job of illustrating that in the highlighted passages below, discussing how SCOTUS gets things exactly backwards in comparing civil and criminal cases. https://t.co/1TdShAVgo4 https://t.co/s4ebo4bagM
Judge Reeves is right. “Qualified immunity” is an unqualified and unmoored judicial creation, a legally baseless throwback to Jim Crow, and a license for police abuse that gives good cops a bad name and policing less effective. It needs to be tossed onto history’s dustheap now! https://t.co/3FCLcOPyEc
Judge Carlton Reeves has criticized qualified immunity before, but wow, he really cut loose this time. It's extremely rare for a sitting judge to express this level of disdain for a legal doctrine that SCOTUS has consistently and repeatedly affirmed. /1 https://t.co/1TdShAVOdC https://t.co/Z58WxY3TSU
Federal judge: "A cynic might say that with qualified immunity, government agents are at liberty to violate your constitutional rights as long as they do so in a novel way." https://t.co/5MhHLMp8M9
Judge Carlton Reeves has a new opinion out condemning qualified immunity as unlawful and egregiously unjust. He calls the doctrine a "perpetuation of racial inequality" and "an extra-constitutional affront to other cherished values of our democracy." https://t.co/0bhTJkWEir https://t.co/jz8YePH4dF