The National Constitution Center and WHYY present a conversation exploring a major issue at the forefront of the national police reform debate—qualified immunity. Gloria Browne-Marshall, professor of constitutional law at John Jay College of Criminal Justice; Leonard Kesten, an attorney who has litigated hundreds of cases involving the application of qualified immunity; and Rafael Mangual, senior fellow and head of research for the Policing and Public Safety Initiative at the Manhattan Institute, join moderator Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, to discuss what the doctrine is and whether it needs to be reformed.
This program is presented in partnership with WHYY’s Your Democracy initiative, supported by the Sutherland Family.
Participants
Gloria Browne-Marshall is a professor of constitutional law at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a civil rights attorney who has litigated cases for Southern Poverty Law Center, Community Legal Services in Philadelphia, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Browne-Marshall is the author of many articles and the books including She Took Justice: The Black Woman, Law, and Power, The Voting Rights War: The NAACP and the Ongoing Struggle for Justice, The Constitution: Major Cases and Conflicts, and Race, Law, and American Society: 1607 to Present (second edition).
Leonard Kesten is a founding partner at the law firm Brody Hardoon Perkins & Kestenm LLP and one of the preeminent trial lawyers in Massachusetts. He has conducted over 100 jury trials in the United States District Court and the Superior Court and devotes much of his practice to the representation of cities and towns in Massachusetts and their officials and employees. Leonard is considered one of the leading defenders of police officers as he has developed an extensive expertise in the areas of use of force, the constitutionality of searches, and the right to arrest.
Rafael Mangual is a senior fellow and head of research for the Policing and Public Safety Initiative at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. He has authored and coauthored several Manhattan reports and op-eds on issues ranging from urban crime and jail violence to broader matters of criminal and civil justice reform. In 2020, he was appointed to serve a four-year term as a member of the New York State Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.
Additional Resources
- Gloria Browne-Marshall, She Took Justice: The Black Woman, Law, and Power – 1619 to 1969
- 42 U.S. Code § 1983
- Saucier v. Katz (2001)
- Pearson et al. v. Callahan (2009)
- Gloria Browne-Marshall, Bloomberg Law, "We Must Demand Prosecutorial Reform After Chauvin Sentencing"
- Joanna Schwartz, Yale Law Journal, "How Qualified Immunity Fails"
- Gloria Browne-Marshall, Race, Law, and American Society: 1607-Present
- Screws v. United States (1945)
- James Copland and Rafael Mangual, National Review, "Evaluating the GOP's JUSTICE Act"
- 117th Congress, H.R.1280 - George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021
- 116th Congress, S.4036 - Reforming Qualified Immunity Act (2020)
- Leonard Kesten, Evan Ouellette, and Thomas Donohue, “Testimony of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association on S.2820, §10 (Changes to the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act and the Judicial Doctrine of Qualified Immunity),” (July 17, 2020)
- The Massachusetts Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission
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