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Supreme Court declines to hear case on qualified immunity for police officers

08 March 2021
Dan Ackermann

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal for a lawsuit brought against Cleveland police officers that challenges the scope of qualified immunity, the legal doctrine which has been used to shield officers from lawsuits alleging excessive force, Reuters reports.

Why it matters: The doctrine has been the subject of scrutiny from civil rights advocates. Eliminating qualified immunity was one of the key demands of demonstrators during nationwide protests in 2020 following the killing of George Floyd.

Details: Shase Howse said that he was slammed to the ground by police and arrested while trying to enter his own home in August 2016, per the NAACP Cleveland Branch. Howse, who is Black, was 20 at the time.

  • An Ohio-based appeals court granted immunity to the officers in the case, arguing that there was no "clearly established" precedent to deem their actions illegal, per Reuters.

Our thought bubble, via Axios' race and justice reporter Russell Contreras: The Supreme Court ruling won't stop advocates who plan on pushing for states to change their qualified immunity laws for officers.

  • A proposal in New Mexico, for example, seeks to eliminate qualified immunity for officers accused of violating someone's constitutional rights.

Worth noting: The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act passed by the House last week would overhaul qualified immunity for officers. It would also ban chokeholds at the federal level, prohibit no-knock warrants in federal drug cases, and outlaw racial profiling.

  • The bill, which is opposed by most Republicans, is less likely to clear the divided Senate.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.