Clyburn on Qualified Immunity: ‘According to Black’s Law Dictionary, Qualified Means Limited’
Clyburn seeks at least 'half a loaf' in key police reform battle
Congressional Democrats looking to eliminate — or at least substantially weaken — the legal protection for police known as “limited immunity” have a high-profile and influential new champion who is speaking out.
“Qualified immunity” is a legal protection extended to police and other government officials, to shield them in the day-to-day activities of their jobs.
Opponents, however, have begun arguing that legal shield now extends to police and others who commit actual wrongdoing in the line of duty.
The issue of police reform has taken a much higher significance nationally since the death a year ago of George Floyd, a Black man who was murdered on a crowded street corner in Minneapolis, Minn., in custody of then-police officer Derek Chauvin.
The comprehensive police reform legislation currently before Congress bears Floyd's name.
And Democrats have made removal of “qualified immunity” as a legal defense as a key pillar of the reform effort. Republicans generally support maintaining qualified immunity.
A group of House progressives recently sent a letter to congressional leadership to make their case to kill qualified immunity.
Some 150 years ago, Congress enacted Section 1983 to enforce the 14th Amendment and ensure that individuals could go to court to redress constitutional violations committed by state and local governments and their agents. The modern Supreme Court has all but eliminated this vital civil rights tool by inventing the doctrine of qualified immunity, which in practice makes it nearly impossible for people to receive justice when harmed by governmental actors such as police, opponents of qualified immunity say.
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC), who is No. 3 in the House leadership, has spoken out for at least some compromise which would weaken the current status of qualified immunity, which for many, has in practice lost the weight given to the modifier “qualified.”
"Let me repeat what I said some weeks ago and seem to have been misunderstood. I do believe that a half loaf is better than no loaf at all. Now, what we sent to the Senate was what I considered to be the whole loaf on qualified immunity. That is to say, get rid of it. Now, not to get rid of it would be no loaf at all. So, a half-loaf is somewhat in between. I would hope they would find some compromise on that,” Clyburn said. “I have consulted Black’s Law Dictionary, a dictionary that you’re very familiar with, and according to Black’s Law Dictionary, qualified means limited. That’s the first word. So, we seem to be interpreting qualified as being absolute. It doesn’t mean absolute.
"So what I would hope that these negotiations will come up with a very good definition for what qualified immunity is, and that we can agree to something that both sides will be relatively satisfied with,” Clyburn added. “You never get all that you want, but I would hope we will get something between no loaf and the full loaf."