Damon Root: SCOTUS Appears Ready to Rule for Police in Deadly Car Chase
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument on Tuesday in a case testing the reach of qualified immunity, a legal doctrine designed to shield government officials from civil lawsuits "insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known." By the time the proceedings came to a close, observes Senior Editor Damon Root, it looked as if a majority of the justices were prepared to vote in favor of the West Memphis police officers whose use of deadly force to end a high-speed car chase lay at the heart of the case.