Justly Prudent applauds bipartisan push to abolish qualified immunity and restore accountability

Nine days ago, Renee Good dropped her six-year-old son off at school in Minneapolis. Minutes later, she was dead—shot three times by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent while in her car on a residential street. She was 37 years old, a mother of three, a poet, and a U.S. citizen. Her family is now left to mourn, while the federal government defends the officer who killed her.

On January 13, 2026, Senator Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts and Representative Ayanna Pressley introduced the Qualified Immunity Abolition Act of 2026, legislation that would eliminate one of the most significant barriers preventing victims of law enforcement misconduct from holding officers accountable in civil court. Justly Prudent applauds this critical legislative effort to restore the accountability mechanisms Congress intended when it passed the Civil Rights Act of 1871.

Qualified immunity is a legal doctrine that the Supreme Court created in 1967 (out of thin air). It is a doctrine that Congress never authorized and has been steadily expanded by federal courts over the past six decades. Under qualified immunity, government officials who violate someone's constitutional rights cannot be held liable unless a prior court case involving nearly identical facts already declared that specific conduct unlawful. The practical effect is perverse: officers can escape accountability for egregious misconduct simply because no previous case happened to present the same unusual circumstances.

The doctrine has been particularly devastating for victims of excessive force. As Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has observed, qualified immunity has enabled a "shoot first, think later" approach to policing, with courts routinely shielding officers who use deadly force from any civil consequences. A 2020 Reuters investigation found that qualified immunity has become a "nearly failsafe tool to let police brutality go unpunished and deny victims their constitutional rights."

The Qualified Immunity Abolition Act directly addresses this injustice. The bill amends Section 1983 of the Civil Rights Act to eliminate the defenses that have gutted this landmark statute. Under the proposed law, it would no longer matter whether the officer believed their conduct was lawful, whether the constitutional right was "clearly established," or whether existing case law would have put a reasonable officer on notice. If an officer violates someone's constitutional rights, the victim would have a legal remedy, exactly as Congress intended when it passed the original statute during Reconstruction to protect formerly enslaved African Americans from lawless violence.

Critically, this legislation extends these protections to victims of federal law enforcement misconduct, not just those harmed by state and local officials. This expansion is particularly significant given the dramatic increase in federal immigration enforcement operations and the violent confrontations that have accompanied them. The killing of Renee Good was the ninth time ICE agents had opened fire on people since September, according to reports, and it occurred just blocks from where George Floyd was murdered in 2020.

"For too long, victims of law enforcement abuse have been denied justice by a legal doctrine that Congress never created and never intended," said Jordan D. Howlette, Managing Attorney of Justly Prudent. "The Qualified Immunity Abolition Act represents a long-overdue restoration of the civil rights framework that our nation adopted during Reconstruction. We urge Congress to pass this legislation and ensure that when officers break the law, they can be held accountable in court."

The bill builds on years of advocacy by Senator Markey and Representative Pressley, who first introduced the Ending Qualified Immunity Act in June 2020 following George Floyd's murder. That effort stalled during bipartisan negotiations over the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, with qualified immunity emerging as a key sticking point. The lawmakers reintroduced their legislation in May 2025 to mark the fifth anniversary of Floyd's death, and this latest version expands the scope to include federal officers like ICE agents.

The legislation has garnered support from civil rights organizations, legal scholars, and advocates across the political spectrum. Opposition to qualified immunity has united groups as diverse as the American Civil Liberties Union and the libertarian Cato Institute, reflecting broad consensus that the doctrine has strayed far from any principled legal foundation.

For the families of Renee Good, George Floyd, and countless other victims of law enforcement misconduct, the Qualified Immunity Abolition Act offers something the current legal system cannot: a meaningful opportunity to seek justice. Justly Prudent stands with them and with all who believe that accountability is essential to a free society.