Ending qualified immunity means police officers held accountable for wrongdoings

FACULTY Q&A Police reform efforts nationwide have sparked debate about qualified immunity, a federal doctrine that legally protects officers accused of wrongdoing while on duty. Michael J. Steinberg , a professor from practice and director of the Civil Rights Litigation Initiative at the University of Michigan Law School, says eliminating this protection will hold police officers nationwide more accountable. President Biden wants lawmakers to implement a policing bill by May 25-the anniversary of George Floyd's murder by a Minneapolis police officer. Give a snapshot of the qualified immunity cases that you handled. You indicated this doctrine hadn't been on the public's radar prior to the Black Lives Matter movement. In virtually every case where I have sued a government employee for the violation of my client's constitutional rights, the government has raised the defense of qualified immunity. As a result, I have been involved in cases where judges, after finding that my clients' rights were violated, dismissed the case because the law was not "clearly established” at the time of the constitutional violation.