Government’s growing get-out-of-jail-free card: Qualified immunity

OPINION:

The Institute for Justice found in a new report that only eight of 50 states have laws that specifically grant citizens the right to sue certain government officials for civil offenses, and only three of those eight outright reject the public servant sector’s typical go-to plea when put in positions of judicial defense — qualified immunity.

In layman’s terms, this means that many of today’s public servants, with alarming and increasing frequency, can violate the civil rights of citizens any which way they want, and citizens have very little power to protest in court.

This is a recipe for constitutional disaster.

Most states, IJ found, have put in place the standards of immunity set forth by the federal government, and several others have added to that federal standard by creating at the state level additional protections for certain public servants.

As if defund-the-police movements and billionaire George Soros’s constant infusion of cash into local prosecutors’ races weren’t enough of a challenge to maintaining law and order in modern American society.

With the growing push for more and more qualified immunity, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to hold today’s various levels of government accountable.

“Every American deserves their day in court, but the sad truth is that for most victims of government abuse, the courthouse doors are locked,” said Kendall Morton, a leading researcher for IJ’s “50 Shades of Government Immunity: Complications with bringing civil rights claims under state law” report.

Morton continues: “As far as life, liberty and property are concerned, state and local officials get near absolute immunity, under both state and federal laws.”

So much for blind justice. So much for equality under the law.

IJ reports on an Arkansas case of two boys, ages 12 and 14, who were arrested, held at gunpoint, and forced to lie down on their stomachs in handcuffs by a police officer who was seeking adult-aged suspects fleeing law enforcement. Police reportedly didn’t have legal cause to keep the boys. And their mother sought to sue.

“But because immunities in Arkansas are even more onerous than under federal law,” IJ wrote, “[the mother] and the boys chose to take their chances in federal court. Unfortunately, they fared no better in federal court.” That old immunity clause, once again.

Then the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a hearing of their case.

Too bad, so sad. The mother and boys are stuck with the silencing. 

And here’s the crucial point — the key takeaway: This is not so much about whether or not the mother and boys were right and the police officer wrong, or vice versa. This is more about the right of an American citizen to have grievances against public authorities heard in a court of law.

This is about a basic right that all American citizens are supposed to have, according to our Founding Fathers’ intent, according to God-given rights, according to constitutional principles — this is about a basic individual right of citizens to have the merits of a legal argument at the very least, heard.

If those legal arguments are then deemed frivolous, let them be thrown from court.

But by all means, by all constitutional means, let the cases get going to court.

“Overall,” IJ found, “27 states and the District of Columbia don’t even give you permission to sue for violations of your constitutional rights.”

That’s egregious.

That’s unacceptable.

That’s hardly American.

That’s get-out-of-jail-free for me, but not for thee.

America cannot maintain law and order if certain segments of society, based solely and automatically on employment status, are granted the power to bypass scrutiny. 

That’s a sure-fire way to crumble the constitutional system, disintegrate trust in the judiciary and destroy any chance the people have of holding the government accountable.

• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Socialists Don’t Sleep: Christians Must Rise Or America Will Fall,” is available by clicking HERE.