Thiru Vignarajah
Graphic video from Kenosha, Wisconsin, has reignited debate on why the law makes it so hard for Jacob Blake to sue police for shooting him seven times in the back.
Removing the main legal barrier — the qualified immunity defense — has become the bellwether reform for activists and Democratic lawmakers. It was the clearest policy demand at last month’s March on Washington.
It also marks a Maginot line for Republicans, with South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott calling the end of qualified immunity a “poison pill,” that is, a suggestion so toxic for his political kin that it would kill off the possibility of building consensus around other police reform proposals.
Compromise is not the mood of America today, but it is needed here. This once obscure, now contentious doctrine, which all but precludes private lawsuits against police officers, does not have to be scrapped completely to satisfy its critics.
