“Fix the cops: Qualified Immunity and State-Federal Conflict”
Qualified immunity (QI) is a U.S Supreme Court doctrine shielding police from financial liability, leading to perverse incentives and significant abuse. Responding to outrage following the murder of George Floyd, Colorado passed SB20-217 in 2020, becoming the first state to ban the QI defense in state court and expose officers to personal liability. U.S. federalism is often celebrated for encouraging states to be “laboratories of democracy,” experimenting with policy innovations and circumventing Congressional gridlock. However, the driving force behind Colorado’s ban of QI was a complex and occasionally accidental web of relationships among racialized victims of police violence, legal experts, reformist and abolitionist organizations, libertarian think tanks, and police unions. This research examines SB20-217 as a resolution of state-federal conflict which reimagines political and legal territory to secure police accountability.