Andre Anderson, a corrections officer for the New York City Department of Corrections (DOC), was driving home from work when he was rear-ended by another motorist who fled the accident scene after Anderson insisted that they exchange insurance information. Anderson then pursued the occupants of the departing vehicle, first by car and then on foot,…
Steven Bowers was a sergeant for the Taylor County Sheriff’s Department in Wisconsin. In 2017, the Department started working with a television show called Cold Justice, a true-crime series that investigated unsolved crimes. The Department gave the crew members access to one case file, but Bowers began sharing other case files with them, even though…
Qualified immunity shields government officials performing discretionary tasks from civil liability insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known. For a right to be “clearly established,” the unlawfulness of the defendants’ conduct must be apparent based on then-existing law. When analyzing qualified…
Andre Anderson is a Corrections Officer with the New York City Department of Corrections (DOC). On July 25, 2020, Anderson was driving home when he was rear-ended by another motorist who fled the accident scene when Anderson insisted that they exchange insurance information. Anderson pursued the occupants of the departing vehicle, first by car and then on foot, eventually drawing his…
In the public discussion about the principle of “qualified immunity” virtually no mention is made of the fact that qualified immunity bars many lawsuits by public employees alleging constitutional violations by their employers. A recent case out of Ohio provides a good illustration of how qualified immunity works in an employment context. The case involved…
