What’s Dividing the Supreme Court’s Conservatives?
Kavanaugh and Barrett appear to understand the importance of George Floyd. Alito, Thomas and Gorsuch don’t appear to care.
Public opinion matters.
Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
In a short but significant opinion, the Supreme Court reinstated a lawsuit against police officers who held down a St. Louis man named Nicholas Gilbert in a prone position for 15 minutes, until he died. Gilbert was in handcuffs and leg irons in a cell at a police station when it all happened. He tried to raise his chest and said: “It hurts. Stop.”
To many, probably most readers, it will seem morally obvious that there should be accountability and liability in a case with such shocking facts. But followers of the court’s jurisprudence on qualified immunity — and regular readers of this column — will know that under current law, it’s extremely difficult for victims or their families to win cases against police. Indeed, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit had dismissed the suit on the ground that the officers were entitled to immunity because they had not violated Gilbert’s clearly established constitutional rights.