Sponsors (15)
The bill increases victims' ability to hold officers accountable by removing key qualified-immunity defenses, but does so at the cost of greater liability for officers and governments, higher litigation and fiscal burdens, and potential effects on officer behavior and public safety.
Victims of police misconduct and civil-rights plaintiffs can more easily obtain accountability and monetary relief because the bill removes qualified-immunity defenses for pending and new §1983 suits.
Local governments and law-enforcement agencies may be incentivized to strengthen training, policies, and oversight because officers face greater liability risk.
The public and law-enforcement may face increased public-safety risk because officers could become more hesitant to act in uncertain, fast-moving situations due to higher liability exposure.
Taxpayers and local governments may incur higher settlement and judgment costs because common defenses are barred, increasing municipal liability exposure.
Individual law-enforcement officers will face greater personal liability risk because defenses like good faith, reasonable belief, and lack of clearly established law are removed for pending and future suits.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Removes qualified-immunity-style defenses in § 1983 civil-rights suits against federal, state, and local law enforcement officers.
Introduced January 13, 2026 by Ayanna Pressley · Last progress January 13, 2026
Removes qualified-immunity-style defenses for federal, state, and local law enforcement officers in civil lawsuits brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, so that claims alleging deprivation of rights cannot be defended by arguing the officer acted in good faith, reasonably believed conduct was lawful, or that rights were not clearly established. The change applies to cases pending at enactment and to cases filed afterward. The bill also signals an additional unspecified edit to § 1983(a) but the text of that edit is not included in the excerpt provided.