Qualified Immunity for a Police Shooting (CRS Report for Congress)
| Release Date |
Feb. 9, 2017 |
| Report Number |
QUALIFIED |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
Summary:
White v. Pauly is the Supreme Court’s first qualified immunity decision this year. The Court has agreed to review
several others. In White, a unanimous per curiam decision, the Court overturned a lower court’s denial of immunity for
an officer who had shot and killed the armed occupant of a home. In the Supreme Court’s view, the Officer White’s
conduct did not violate clearly established law and thus was entitled to qualified immunity.
As a general rule, police officers enjoy immunity from civil liability for conduct committed in the course of the
performance of their duties. Unless the facts suggest an exception, officers are entitled to pre-trial dismissal of civil suits
rising out the official conduct. The immunity extends even to instances where the officer’s conduct is unconstitutional
or otherwise unlawful as long as the conduct does not “violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of
which a reasonable person would have been aware.” The “clearly established” law need not be directly on point but
must place the question beyond debate so that the immunity “protects all but the plainly incompetent or those who
knowingly violate the law.”
