Supreme Court Temporarily Halts Ohio’s Qualified Immunity Ballot Initiative

The U.S. Supreme Court on April 10 issued an order temporarily preventing Ohio voters who support repealing the qualified immunity rule from gathering signatures to place the issue on a future Ohio ballot. Qualified immunity, a rule created by the courts, shields government officials, including police officers, from individual liability unless the wrongdoer violated a clearly established right. Civil libertarians have become increasingly critical of qualified immunity in recent years, which they say allows government officials to escape liability for sometimes egregious wrongdoing. The new order came just hours after Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court seeking to put on hold a ruling issued March 14 by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. The district court ordered Yost to “immediately certify” the proposed language, a key step in the process of getting the question on the ballot....