Steve Palmer [00:00:00]:

Alright. Steve Palmer here, lawyer talk off the record on the air. Every now and then, I do a a brief little breakdown of something that's going on in Ohio or elsewhere, and I'm gonna do something like that today. I think I'm not gonna do it just or I'll do it justice for the context of what I'm doing, but I think it needs a broader discussion. I'm gonna plan maybe some guests to talk about it, but it has to do with police qualified immunity. And why am I bringing this up now? I've talked about this a couple of times on the show, and I've always promised to do more on it. And the reason I typically don't is because it's a deep dive. It's a rabbit hole or it could be.

Steve Palmer [00:00:29]:

But the reason it's coming up now is because there has been a proposed couple of times back in 2024, I think, there was a proposed amendment to the Ohio constitution to eliminate qualified immunity, meaning giving people the right to sue police. And our attorney general Dave Yost has sort of challenged that and struck it. And I think recently, the Ohio Supreme Court back in April, sort of paved the way, to make this closer to getting on the Ohio ballot. And there's some or there's some procedure I'm not gonna dig into, But I do wanna talk about qualified immunity sort of generally. It's a legal concept, that protects police officers, legislatures, government workers from civil liability for violating a person's rights in most situations where they're acting in a professional capacity. So what that means is if a police is acting, within his role or a police officer, fireman, even a legislature or a prosecutor is acting within their role, in good faith, you can't sue them personally, for civil damages. And there's been a lot of debate about whether this is good or bad, and I'm not gonna take a side other than to say, it's a it would it would change the landscape of things significantly. Typically, this is traced back, I think, to a decision, Pearson versus Ray, which found officers who had acted in good faith with probable cause could not be held financially responsible for their conduct by a court.

Steve Palmer [00:01:51]:

If you eliminate a qualified immunity, then you would let you would basically permit lawsuits against officers individually, whereas now you can only sort of pierce that immunity if officers violate a clearly established law. So if cops are violating the law and they cause damage, that's a different story. They're not immune from that. This is significant because, you know, on the one hand, there are people are gonna argue we should be able to sue police just like we can sue others. On the other hand, people are gonna argue, well, now you're gonna basically, chill. I hate to use this now. You're gonna handcuff police, and they're not gonna wanna do their jobs or they're not gonna put themselves out there because they're gonna be so afraid of, getting sued and and not being protected. And what is the right answer? I don't know.

Steve Palmer [00:02:37]:

Leave some comments, and we can kick this around. I'm gonna bring in some guests to talk about it. I know one attorney I know very well, actually is involved in litigation both, on behalf of police officers and maybe even on the other side where he has sued police officers. I know a very known a well known defense lawyer who's a friend of mine here in Columbus, Ohio who represents police officers, and I think that would be a great panel to have a discussion on this. But generally speaking, it's coming. You know, there there's a push for this. And, like it or not, it may make the ballot, to change the Ohio constitution. Anybody's heard me talk about that particular facet of it knows I hate it.

Steve Palmer [00:03:10]:

I hate constitutional amendments like this. This is better done, I think, in the general assembly, meaning, the legislative branch of government, not by changing the constitution. But, irrespective of how it comes, it looks like this is right over the horizon, and it's gonna be something we're gonna be kicking around in some detail. So look, leave me a comment. Send me a question about qualified immunity. I'm gonna assemble a panel, and we're gonna take it apart and chop it up. Until then, it's lawyer talk off the record on the air.