Battle for the Constitution: Week of March 1st, 2021 Roundup

Below is a round-up of the latest from the Battle for the Constitution: a special project on the constitutional debates in American life, in partnership with The Atlantic.

The Supreme Court Is Giving Lower Courts a Subtle Hint to Rein in Police Misconduct

By Joanna Schwartz, Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law

Joanna Schwartz argues that two of the Supreme Court’s recent decisions about qualified immunity—the doctrine that shields police misconduct from lawsuits if an extremely similar situation has not previously been ruled illegal—suggest that the Court may subtly be shifting its jurisprudence so egregious misconduct is not tolerated, and that lower courts have recognized the change.