Ends a legal protection for police, making it easier to sue officers for alleged misconduct.
This bill would end a legal protection called 'qualified immunity' for federal, state, and local law enforcement officers. This means people could more easily sue officers for allegedly breaking their rights, even if the officers thought their actions were legal. It would also clearly allow lawsuits against federal officers under a key civil rights law.
Today, federal, state, and local law enforcement officers can use qualified immunity to protect themselves from civil lawsuits unless their actions clearly violated established rights they should have known about. Federal officers are generally not covered by the main civil rights law (42 U.S.C. 1983). After this bill, the qualified immunity defense would be removed for all federal, state, and local law enforcement officers in civil lawsuits, even if they acted in good faith or believed their conduct was lawful. Federal officers would also be explicitly included under 42 U.S.C. 1983, making them subject to these lawsuits.
HR 7046 · 119th Congress · January 13, 2026 · AI Summary by gemini-2.5-flash · 8/10
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