PPDC supports End Qualified Immunity Act

END QUALIFIED IMMUNITY ACT

US Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) will co-lead with Justin Amash (L-MI) the effort to pass the End Qualified Immunity Act, which would eliminate a “permanent procedural roadblock for plaintiffs” that thwarts them from “obtaining damages for having their rights violated.”

Ever since Congress passed the Civil Rights Act in 1871, individuals have been able to sue state and local officers for infringing on their constitutional rights. But in 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that government officials were entitled to qualified immunity from civil-rights lawsuits, if their actions didn’t violate “clearly established” rights.

Ending qualified immunity would “restore Americans’ ability to obtain relief when police officers violate their constitutionally secured rights." At the same time, it would also provide a powerful incentive for municipalities (who are generally responsible for paying out judgements and settlements) to restructure their law enforcement agencies and adopt policies and practices that curtail abuses of power. Those measures could include implementing de-escalation tactics and revising use-of-force standards, as well as firing and blacklisting rogue agents.

Abolishing qualified immunity does not mean that anyone who files a civil rights lawsuit would automatically win their case against an officer. Instead, it would eliminate a barrier that arbitrarily prevents juries from hearing and deciding cases on their merits.

Click below to read the Amash/Pressley letter to Congress.

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Were you born in a bad year?

I was born on the day Hitler visited Paris after the collapse of France in World War II. Not a great day in world history. Two decades later, I was facing an order to report for induction in the U.S. Army to defend my country in the Vietnam War, which then was just ramping up.

Many Americans have faced what I did during their early adult lives. Many of us who fought in the Vietnam War were only made “adults” when the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 after it was argued that “if you are asked to fight and die for your country, you should be given the right to vote.”

If you were born in the American colonies in the 1750s, you were faced in 1776 or 1777 with making a decision re whether or not to join the rebel patriots fighting the British forces controlling their American Colony.

If you were born in the American colonies in the 1750s, you were faced in 1776 or 1777 with making a decision re whether or not to join the rebel patriots fighting

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The 2020 Election: Can Democracy Be Saved?

Election Day, November 3, 2020, is less than six months away. What will the world be like by then? Will the Covid-19 virus be contained? Will there be a fall spike upward of the virus? Will Americans be allowed to leave their homes to vote? Will we all vote by mail? Will we be able to vote at all?

Most importantly, what can Progressives do to insure that the Tyrant Trump is not reelected? What can we do to flip the Senate as well? We can dump Trump and elect Biden or whomever, but without a Democratic majority in the Senate starting in January 2021, a full recovery from the virus and of our democracy will be crippled.

We can dump Trump and elect Biden or whomever, but without a Democratic majority in the Senate starting in January 2021, a full recovery from the virus and of our democracy will be crippled.

Here is what we need to do:

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