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26 Pub. Int. L. Rep. 55 (2020-2021)
A New Frontier for Ending Qualified Immunity: State Civil Rights Acts

handle is hein.journals/pilr26 and id is 59 raw text is: No. 1 * Fall 2020 A New Frontier For Ending Qualified Immunity: State Civil Rights Acts Kyle Johnson The United States faced a reckoning in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd.1 Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was killed by a Minneapolis police officer after being arrested on may 25, 2020.2 A bystander video of Floyd's last moments was broadcast across the nation on social media and ma- jor media outlets, provoking the nation's anger over police violence against black people.' Civil unrest reached every corner of the United States and spread to other countries as millions of people took to the streets in protest.4 An international pandemic could not keep millions of people from gathering together and calling for justice and accountability.5 To survivors of police violence this reckoning over the policing of black and brown bodies was overdue.6 Many of those survivors and their allies have been calling for broader police reform and accountability for decades.7 To the activist who have been working in the movement for police accountability the protests were an opportunity to focus the nation's attention on the social and legal mechanisms that protect police officers from criminal and civil liability for their misconduct.' One protection in particular, qualified immunity, gained national attention during the months that followed Floyds death.9 Qualified Immunity is best-known for its availability to government of- ficers in actions brought under Title 42 Section §1983 (Section §1983) of the United State Code (U.S.C.).10 Section §1983 provides a right to sue govern- 1 Vandana Rambaran, Watchdog group accuses police of excessive force in George Floyd protests, FOX NEWS (Aug. 4, 2020), https://www.foxnews.com/us/amnesty-international-police-force- protests. 2 Rambaran, supra note 1. 3 Rambaran, supra note 1. 4 Hailey Fuchs, Qualified Immunity Protection for Police Emerges as Flash Point Amid Protests, The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/23/us/politics/qualified-immu- nity.html (last updated July 20, 2020). 5 Fuchs, supra note 4. 6 Fuchs, supra note 4. 7 Fuchs, supra note 4. 8 Fuchs, supra note 4. 9 Fuchs, supra note 4. 10 Joanna C. Schwartz, The Case Against Qualified Immunity, 93 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1797, 1801 (2018). 55

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