Comment by themaninthedark

Comment by themaninthedark 6 hours ago

In the United States, qualified immunity is a legal principle of federal law that grants government officials performing discretionary (optional) functions immunity from lawsuits for damages unless the plaintiff shows that the official violated "clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known".

Under 42 USC § 1983, a plaintiff can sue for damages when state officials violate their constitutional rights or other federal rights.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualified_immunity

Qualified Immunity only sets the bar or threshold that you have to meet in order to sue.

myko 6 hours ago

Nearly impossibly hard to receive justice against government officials due to this standard

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_heimdall 6 hours ago

The rules and laws allowing the federal government to take over a state case against a federal agent seem much more damaging.
The cops involved in the most recent Minneapolis shooting will almost certainly face no repercussions because of this. The state can bring a case but the feds are clearly uninterested, they would simply take the case into federal court and spike it.

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- cataphract 5 hours ago
  
  That's not how it works. When a state prosecution of a federal officer is removed to federal court, it's still the state prosecutor who's in charge. The problem is that as long as they were performing their duties they get a lot of leeway. A recent case was a cyclist killed by a DEA agent that ran a stop sign. Case dismissed: federal agents tailing someone don't have to respect state traffic laws.
  
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- themaninthedark 5 hours ago
  
  The state can't bring charges against a federal agent enforcing federal law, otherwise southern states could have sued the federal agents enforcing integration.
  https://youtu.be/LuRFcYAO8lI?si=3n5XRqABhotw8Qrw
  
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  _heimdall 2 hours ago
  
  That's incorrect. States can bring charges, they will almost certainly be thrown out or moved to federal court outside of the state's control.
  
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SilverElfin 5 hours ago

But for federal officials, individuals don’t have standing right?

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themaninthedark 4 hours ago

It's more like when the federal government passed a law giving people a recourse for when state officials violate their rights they did not write the law to (or purposefully wrote it to not) include the federal government.

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