Qualified Immunity: Are Government Officials Above the Law? (A Deep Dive Best Of)
How Government Officials Can Blow Up Your House with Grenades—and Get Away With It by Claiming Immunity
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Over the past several months, a national spotlight has been on the doctrine of qualified immunity. Although much of the recent focus has been on police misconduct, immunity shields all governmental workers: from city council members to code inspectors to IRS agents to cops on the beat. That’s more than 20 million people employed by local, state, and federal governments. In this episode, we talk about what the term means and how it came to be, as well as what it looks like in practice and why changes to immunity doctrines are essential to protecting individual rights. (Episode originally aired on 03/06/20.)
*Fun fact: Scott was not quoting Phil Collins. He was referring to Thunderclap Newman’s “Something In The Air.”
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