U.S. Supreme Court rejects case over 'qualified immunity' for police
MARCH 8, 20218:48 AMUPDATED 10 HOURS AGO
By Andrew Chung
4 MIN READ
(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday sidestepped a chance to review the scope of a legal defense called qualified immunity that increasingly has been used to shield police accused of excessive force, turning away an appeal by a Cleveland man who sued after being roughed up by police while trying to enter his own home.
The justices declined to hear the appeal by Shase Howse, who said he was slammed to the ground outside the house where he lived with his mother in a poor and mostly Black neighborhood, struck in the back of the neck and jailed after police deemed his actions suspicious. Howse, who was 20 at the time, is Black. The police involved in the 2016 incident are white.
Qualified immunity protects police officers and other types of government officials from civil litigation in certain circumstances, allowing lawsuits only when an individuals clearly established statutory or constitutional rights have been violated.
Police use of force has been closely scrutinized following the May 2020 death of a Black man named George Floyd after a Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck.
Sinistrous
(4,249 posts)disgust I feel about this non-action by the SCOTUS.
movingviolation
(310 posts)I'm not surprised at all.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)...and that means we have to expand our majorities in House and Senate ASAP first.