Sen. Mike Braun, a freshman Republican from Indiana, has introduced a bill he says will limit qualified immunity for police officers.
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.
Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in an image from the video during arrest of George Floyd, May 25, 2020, in Minneapolis. Braun said he believes his legislation would result in victims winning more lawsuits against law enforcement officers.But one legal expert said the legislation might have the opposite effect.
A former businessman and Harvard MBA graduate, Braun is an unlikely candidate to take on his party and the thorny issue of qualified immunity. "We don't want to be on that side of defending those kinds of incidents because we're not willing to bend at all on the immunity question. So, it's a tough spot to be in," Braun said.Still, the vast majority of Republicans have expressed opposition to altering qualified immunity, including Trump who has called eliminating the shield -- as Democrats are seeking to do -- a"non-starter.
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