Sponsors
Introduced January 30, 2026 by Julie Johnson · Last progress January 30, 2026
The bill makes it substantially easier to hold federal and local officials civilly and criminally accountable for misconduct—expanding victims' access to remedies and deterrence—but shifts significant legal and financial risk onto officers and local governments and may affect policing decisions in urgent situations.
People harmed by official misconduct (especially racial and ethnic minorities) and the public: criminal prosecutions are easier because §242’s mens rea is lowered to reckless and 'resulted in death' is defined as a 'substantial factor', increasing the chance abusive officials are held criminally accountable.
People sued for misconduct (including federal officers): the bill removes the death-penalty authorization under §242, eliminating the possibility of capital punishment under that statute and reducing risk of irreversible sentences.
Victims of unlawful police or federal investigative conduct (including racial-ethnic-minorities) and the public: civil remedies become easier to obtain because qualified-immunity-like defenses and the 'clearly established' hurdle are removed for covered officers, increasing access to compensation and redress.
Local governments, small police departments, and taxpayers: removing defenses and lowering criminal thresholds increases the risk of larger settlements and judgments and raises litigation costs, potentially straining budgets and forcing cuts or higher local taxes.
Law enforcement officers and the public: greater civil and criminal exposure for split-second decisions may encourage defensive policing or hesitation in urgent situations, which could harm public safety and response effectiveness.
Individual officers: lowering the mens rea to reckless risks criminalizing split-second, non-intentional errors, exposing officers to criminal liability for conduct that previously might not have been prosecutable.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Lowers criminal mens rea for federal deprivation-of-rights cases, removes death-penalty, and strips good-faith and "clearly established" defenses for covered officers in civil suits.
Changes federal criminal and civil law governing official misconduct by narrowing defenses and lowering the mental-state requirement for prosecutions. It makes it easier to convict officials for depriving people of rights by changing the required mens rea from "willfully" to "knowingly or recklessly," removes the federal death-penalty option in those prosecutions, and adopts a "substantial factor" causation test for deaths. It also removes key civil-law defenses for covered local and federal law enforcement officers, including good-faith and the "clearly established" qualified-immunity defense, making civil liability easier to obtain in suits for constitutional or statutory rights violations.