The U.S. Supreme Court said it will consider on Jan. 24 whether to hear an appeal from a Maryland father on behalf of his son who was injured in a police shooting.
The case deals with qualified immunity, a rule created by the courts that shields government officials, including police officers, from individual liability unless the wrongdoer violated a clearly established right.
Civil libertarians have become increasingly critical of the qualified immunity legal doctrine in recent years, which they say allows government officials to get away with sometimes egregious wrongdoing.
The nation’s highest court made the announcement about the case known as Cunningham v. Baltimore County in a docket entry on Jan. 8….