Source: Washington Post
by George F Will
“By a recent dereliction of duty, the Supreme Court has demonstrated that sometimes the proper regret about judicial activism is that there is too little of it. The court refused to hear a case that would have allowed it to clarify a doctrine that has become an impediment to remedies for even gross government violations of individuals’ constitutionally guaranteed rights. In 2016, Kodi Gaines, then 5, was seriously wounded by a Baltimore County police corporal who was, he later explained, ‘hot’ and ‘frustrated’ during a six-hour standoff on a sweltering August day in a Baltimore suburb. The corporal was, however, protected by court-granted ‘qualified immunity’ from liability for his appalling misjudgment. Qualified immunity, which is frequently misapplied because the Supreme Court has declined to dispel confusion that has proliferated in the absence of clarity that the court could have provided by taking up Kodi’s case.” (03/12/25)