Sponsor
Julie Johnson
Representative · D-TX
Representative · D-TX
The bill makes it significantly easier to hold law-enforcement and federal officers criminally and civilly accountable and removes capital punishment under §242, while increasing legal exposure and fiscal burdens on governments and raising concerns about defensive policing and complex litigation.
People harmed by unlawful federal or police conduct — especially racial and ethnic minorities — are more likely to obtain criminal and civil accountability because the bill lowers the criminal mental-state to reckless, adopts a 'substantial factor' causation standard for deaths, and removes qualified-immunity-like barriers.
The bill strengthens government accountability and deterrence by reducing legal barriers that have shielded some officers from civil liability, supporting enforcement of constitutional rights.
People prosecuted under §242 (including federal employees) will no longer face the death penalty under that statute, eliminating the risk of irreversible capital sentences in covered cases.
Municipalities, local governments, and taxpayers face substantially higher liability, settlements, and legal costs because covered officers lose key defenses, which could strain budgets, force cuts to services, or lead to higher local taxes.
Law enforcement officers face greater criminal and civil exposure for split-second decisions, which could increase defensive policing, hesitation in urgent situations, and potential public-safety harms.
Adopting a 'substantial factor' causation test may generate complex, protracted legal disputes over whether misconduct 'resulted in' a death, increasing prosecution and defense costs and legal uncertainty.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Lowers mens rea for federal deprivation-of-rights, removes death penalty for §242, and strips good-faith and "clearly established" qualified-immunity defenses for covered officers in civil suits.
Official title: To amend title 18, United States Code, to revise the applicable standards regarding death resulting from a deprivation of rights under color of law.
Introduced January 30, 2026 by Julie Johnson · Last progress January 30, 2026
Changes criminal and civil standards for lawsuits and prosecutions of law enforcement officers by lowering the required mental state for certain federal crimes from "willfully" to "knowingly or recklessly," removes the death-penalty option for those crimes, and clarifies causation for death. It also eliminates two commonly asserted defenses in civil-rights suits against certain local and federal officers: good-faith / honest-belief and qualified immunity based on whether a right was "clearly established." The result is narrower legal defenses for covered officers and potentially more civil and criminal liability for misconduct.