The Supreme Court passed up at least seven cases Monday that would have allowed it to reconsider aspects of a legal doctrine that torpedoes many lawsuits in which citizens allege abuse by the police
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The court rarely explains why it is not taking cases and it did not do so Monday, but Justice Clarence Thomas recorded his dissent in connection with the decision to pass up one case stemming from a 2014 incident involving a police dog's bite of a homeless man, Alexander Baxter. Nashville police caught Baxter in the process of carrying out a burglary. He claimed had already surrendered when the dog attacked.
"There likely is no basis for the objective inquiry into clearly established law that our modern cases prescribe," ThomasSome liberals have also been sharply critical of the doctrine, including Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who skewered it in a 2015 opinion. The doctrine not only benefits police but other government employees, like hospital workers, firefighters and paramedics. It has no direct application to criminal prosecutions for police misconduct such as unjustified shootings, which tend to be even harder to win than civil suits.
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