Qualified Immunity Is an Unqualified Disaster
Plus: The Fifth Element in Trump’s Hush-Money Trial
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CLARK NEILY: Judge: Qualified Immunity Is an Unqualified Disaster
DISTRICT COURT JUDGES occupy the bottom rung of the federal judicial hierarchy. They hold hearings, decide motions, and preside over trials. They do not make precedent; they apply it. It is therefore highly unusual for district court judges to publicly criticize appellate-court decisions they are bound to apply, much less rulings of the Supreme Court. But that’s precisely what happened last week when Mississippi Judge Carlton Reeves called for the eradication of qualified immunity.
In a nutshell, qualified immunity is a legal defense that police and other government officials can assert in civil rights cases to defeat otherwise meritorious claims by arguing that it was not yet “clearly established” that the particular thing they did—whether shooting a fleeing suspect in the back or stealing $225,000 worth of cash and rare coins while executing a search warrant—was unconstitutional.
MARC CAPUTO: Trump Legal Team Pins Hopes on Hung Jury.
AS THE JURORS FILED into the Manhattan courtroom, day after day, almost none of them would look at Donald Trump. It’s one of those unsettling signs for defendants and their lawyers who worry about a guilty verdict.
Those worries have only grown in Trump’s orbit as allies have all but abandoned hope of acquittal. Even Trump, though he railed Monday on social media about the judge and the case, has privately sounded a note of resignation.
“Whatever happens happens,” Trump told one person recently. “I have no control.”
🎥 PODCASTS AND VIDEOS 🎧
Bulwark Podcast with Tim Miller: John Heilemann: Piss and Vinegar
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DENNIS AFTERGUT: The Fifth Element in Trump’s Hush-Money Trial
WITH CLOSING ARGUMENTS SET TO BEGIN TODAY in Donald Trump’s Manhattan trial for falsifying business records, let’s focus on the most challenging issue for prosecutors: They produced no direct testimony about whether defendant Trump intended to commit another crime as part of his conspiracy to falsify business records.
Intending to commit another crime—that’s the additional element of falsifying business records that elevates what’s usually a misdemeanor to a felony. And felonies are what the Manhattan grand jury indicted Trump for on March 30, 2023.
🚨OVERTIME🚨
Happy Tuesday! We’re out enjoying some family vacation time this week, including some golf. I hope you had a relaxing and reflective Memorial Day.
ICYMI… There was a very nice profile of The Bulwark in The Washington Post today. 🎁
As Birmingham-Southern shuts down… its baseball team advances to DIII College World Series (The Athletic).
The complete and true story… of Cleveland’s 1986 Balloonfest (Plain Dealer).
A father’s final words to his son. A son’s tragic death. The gift of grace. In the face of life’s worst moments, the Currin family manages to Keep Going. (Cincinnati Magazine).
They Bought a New DC Luxury Condo... It Could Collapse. (Washingtonian)
Sunk at the Pier: Crisis in the American Submarine Industrial Base (American Affairs)
A perfect one minute recap… of Trump at the Libertarian convention.
Another FBI Robert Hanssen-style sting… But Truman Show in length.
War Correspondence… while Asian (Tim Mak, The Counteroffensive)
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Editorial photos provided by Getty Images. For full credits, please consult the article.
