CLEVELAND — Legal analysis: The United States Supreme Court has ruled against Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, regarding his review over citizens’ ballot initiatives.
Legally Speaking, this ruling effectively ends a two-year hold-up on a proposed change to the state constitution that would make it easier to sue police officers.
With 3 sentences, the highest court in the land protected Ohioans’ right to propose changes to our state constitution… by rejecting Yost’s request to put a pause on a lower court’s order.
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For this proposed amendment, if passed by voters, it would strip police officers of “qualified immunity,” which is a powerful legal defense when they’re accused in civil court of violating citizens’ constitutional rights.
Wow would this be a move in the right direction!! Police wouldn’t be able to break the law anymore to get a conviction and get away with it. It could also pave the way to remove qualified immunity from prosecutors as well. May this move forward and qualified immunity be brought to an end. Amen!!!!!!!
Cops Denied Qualified Immunity After Arresting Sober Teenager for DUI (Reason.com 21 Apr 2025)
They used their power of being in a position of trust so much that they pressed the issue and lost a lot more than they expected and only have the high court remaining to appeal to, if they chose. They personally are at risk as is the department/office they were a part of are as well when it comes to a settlement and negative verdict.
Praise God the Ohio Ballot Board on Tuesday voted 5-0 to let supporters of the amendment to end qualified immunity begin gathering signatures!!!!!!! The only minor drawback is that it won’t go on the ballot until 2026.
Interestingly enough, even if OH gets this on the ballot and if it takes hold, will it be challenged in court to delay implementation?
The high court sits on the precipice of trying to decide how QI LE can have, if any, if they make a mistake such as LE did in the case noted in the article here: Guns drawn, the FBI barged into the wrong house. Supreme Court justice calls it ‘ridiculous’ (USA Today via Yahoo 29 Apr 2025)
This was not just a reasonable mistake allowing for discretionary exception, it was either outright doing the homework wrong to begin with, someone not paying attention just prior to executing the plan, someone not double checking they have the right place when the innocent family where rudely intruded, or some combo of each. I haven’t read into the case details.
In this day and age, incorrectly doing their job is no longer acceptable and accountability needs to be had. For over 50 years now, upon a 1973 law change, there has been some as one will read in the above article, but it is not enough. Attention to detail is key. These are either all or nothing, 100% or nothing exercises, no partial credit. You either get it all right or all wrong. It is an embarrassment to the org and the country when this still happens. Even society deserves to have accountability even if they are not personally impacted today because they could be tomorrow. I say $1M per head involved be given to each family member plus medical, legal, and repair expenses. So, if ten rushed, $10M (non-taxed too btw). Oh, and remedial homework for each person involved all the way up the chain in how to read a map and other mission related activities to avoid this in the future.