qualified immunity

noun

law : immunity from civil liability that is conditioned or limited (as by a requirement of good faith or due care)

especially : immunity from lawsuits that is granted to public officials (such as police officers) for acts that violate someone's civil rights if it can be shown that the acts do not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would be aware

An officer conducting a search is entitled to qualified immunity where clearly established law does not show that the search violated the Fourth Amendment.

—Pearson v. Callahan, 555 U.S. 223 (2009)

Wayne Jones's family won a small victory this month when the federal Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the officers involved in his killing could not claim qualified immunity.

—Hailey Fuchs

By bypassing qualified immunity, but paying out judgments assessed against the officers, Colorado's new law ensures that victims are made whole and that good cops aren't deterred from doing their jobs.

—Nick Sibilla

Examples of qualified immunity in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

One of the biggest sticking points was qualified immunity, a legal principal to allow civil lawsuits against police officers and municipalities in cases of police shootings, officer misconduct, and abuse of power. —Christopher Keating, Hartford Courant, 10 Dec. 2024

While some of the legislative changes the Uvalde families sought focused on law enforcement accountability, such as a bill to remove officers' qualified immunity that shields them from civil lawsuits, their main goal was to limit the purchase of assault-style weapons. —Hogan Gore, Austin American-Statesman, 24 May 2024

But Trump’s pledge to eliminate qualified immunity for police officers makes him, as a Black man, fear for his life and for the lives of his three sons. —Peter Slevin, The New Yorker, 20 Sep. 2024

Also in the memorandum, the court affirmed the denial of qualified immunity for three officers — Lee Tassio, Jonathan Marshall, and Juan Avila — involving claims from Vera Clanton, a different defendant from the same lawsuit. —Robert Salonga, The Mercury News, 6 Sep. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1859, in the meaning defined above

Legal Definition

qualified immunity

see immunity