As Qualified Immunity Takes Center Stage, More Delay from SCOTUS

Jay SchweikertI fear I may have become trapped in a time loop, in which every week I am doomed to write the same blog post about how the Supreme Court has delayed consideration of its qualified immunity docket. Back inApril, I noted that the Court had scheduled thirteen different qualified immunity cases for its May 15th conference, including three cases explicitly calling for the Court to reconsider the doctrine entirely. Many of these petitions had already been fully briefed and ready for consideration since last October. But the Court then rescheduled the bulk of those casesagain, andagain, andagain.This morning, the Court kicked the can down the road once more. There were eight different qualified immunity cert petitions that went to conference last Thursday, but none of those petitions were either granted or denied in this morning ’sorders. We expect that these petitions will soon be relisted for the Court ’s conference this Thursday, June 4th, which means we could get a decision in these cases as soon as Monday, June 8th.While it ’s obviously impossible to know for sure what is motivating the Justices’ continued delay in these cases, I expect that the death of George Floyd, and the continuing outrage and chaos his death has provoked, are weighing heavily on their minds. As my colleague Clark Neilydiscussed last week, the senseless violence committed by Derek Chauvin —and the stunning indifference of the officers standing by as Geo...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs