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Monday, July 1, 2024

Sovereign Impunity: A Child of the Supreme People - 3

Supremely Qualified

A noted legal scholar once was 'miffed' by the mystical appearance of "sovereign" immunity in the laws of the USA.

His name was Prosser:

"Prosser authored several editions of Prosser on Torts, universally recognized as the leading work on the subject of tort law for a generation. It is still widely used today, now known as Prosser and Keeton on Torts, 5th edition. Furthermore, in the 1950s, Dean Prosser became Reporter for the Second Restatement of Torts."

(Willy P., Wikipedia). Years later, after the the supremes followed suit and expanded upon the concept, the plague spread:

"The evolution of qualified immunity began in 1871 when Congress adopted 42 U.S.C. § 1983, which makes [state] government employees and officials personally liable for money damages if they violate a person’s federal constitutional rights. State and local police officers may be sued under § 1983. Until the 1960s, few § 1983 lawsuits were successfully brought. In 1967, the Supreme Court recognized qualified immunity as a defense to § 1983 claims. In 1982, the Supreme Court adopted the current test for the doctrine. Qualified immunity is generally available if the law a government official violated isn’t 'clearly established.'”

(Qualified Immunity). Today the supremes in Trump v US expanded upon the concept and created out of whole cloth the notion of Supreme Beat Cop In Chief.

This is a growing plague that is now decades old:

"The Government presents an impressive array of theories which would preclude it from any liability ... we ... hold that the Government should escape unscathed ... It is often said that the doctrine of sovereign immunity is a derivative of the common law maxim "The King can do no wrong." But conceptually it is far older. Zeus himself carried an aegis or breastplate, a buckler, and a thunderbolt which made him, the mythological sovereign, immune from all that could beset him. And common law provided its sovereign with the immunity of Zeus ... The tide of history is running clearly against the concept of sovereign immunity. The disfavor into which the doctrine has fallen was observed as far back as ... 1939 ... [and] this Court pointed out that the assault upon the citadel of immunity continues presently apace."

(The Battle of Immunities & Diseases). Getting away with crimes is now a major push for those holding power even in the "Supreme" court as was detected long ago by Dredd Blog (Here Come De Conservative Judges, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12).

The previous post in this series is here.




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