The Nevada Supreme Court has ruled that police are not covered by qualified immunity under state law, meaning that they can be sued for violating people's rights.
Congress needs to pass legislation to do this nationally:
The short version was that a woman who wanted to visit her boyfriend in prison, and guards forced a strip search on her, and then the Nevada Department of Corrections tried to prevent her lawsuit by claiming qualified immunity.
The court was having none of it:
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[W]e reject the NDOC parties’ assertion that state tort law provides meaningful redress for invasions of the constitutional right at issue here. Although other courts have determined tort remedies suffice to compensate for personal invasions of certain constitutional rights, […] we disagree that any commonalities between state tort-law claims and constitutional protections… provide meaningful recourse for violations of the constitutional right against unreasonable searches and seizures by government agents, as state tort law ultimately protects and serves different interests than such constitutional guarantees.
………
Absent a damages remedy here, no mechanism exists to deter or prevent violations of important individual rights in situations like that allegedly experienced by Mack. Thus, a damages remedy is warranted under this factor of the Restatement test, as monetary relief remains necessary to enforce the provision for individuals in Mack‘s shoes, and a damages remedy furthers the purpose of the search-and seizure provision to the extent it acts as a deterrent to government illegality.
I know that there are some people out there who think that rulings like this will make it more difficult to recruit police officers, but this is not true. It will only make it more difficult to recruit bad police officers.
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