Senate Republican bucks party and president on law enforcement immunity
With sweeping police reform on the cusp of collapse amid partisan recriminations in the Senate, one Republican has introduced a bill that he hopes might serve as a vehicle for bipartisan change.
Sen. Mike Braun, a freshman Republican from Indiana, introduced a bill Tuesday that he said attempts to rein in a legal shield for police officers called "qualified immunity," a judicially-created doctrine that attorneys for victims of police brutality say has made it nearly impossible to hold cops to account for violations of civil rights.
Qualified immunity, established by the Supreme Court in the 1980's, requires that any plaintiff point to a "clearly established law" -- meaning, a nearly identical past case -- to show a clear precedent that an officer's alleged conduct was illegal.
Braun's legislation would strip out the "clearly established law" requirement and replace it with language that states that "a defendant sued in his or her individual capacity ... shall not be liable if the defendant establishes that, at the time the deprivation occurred, the conduct alleged to be unlawful was specifically authorized or required by Federal statute or regulation" or by state law, according to the bill text.
https://www.yahoo.com/gma/senate-republican-bucks-party-president-law-enforcement-immunity-000652468.html
Yeah but you still have Moscow Mitch in charge.
