Columbus, OH – On Thursday, The Buckeye Institute filed its amicus brief in Hershey v. Bossier City, calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case and tell government officials they cannot hide behind qualified immunity to protect them from the consequences of violating the First Amendment.

“Government officials who threaten a man for peacefully distributing literature on a public sidewalk should not receive the same qualified-immunity protection as a police officer’s split-second, life-or-death decisions,” said David C. Tryon, director of litigation at The Buckeye Institute. “Yet the current qualified immunity doctrine makes no distinction between the two. This case gives the court an opportunity to change that.”

In its brief, The Buckeye Institute argues that the current qualified immunity doctrine chills the exercise of First Amendment rights and is inconsistent with the U.S. Constitution and the statutory text it derives from. The doctrine is a particularly bad fit in First Amendment cases where the government official’s action does not require split-second decision-making. Buckeye further argues that the government official acting in good faith is the foundation of the qualified immunity doctrine, and that the abandonment of the good-faith standard has created a convoluted and confusing rule.

In Hershey v. Bossier City, Richard Hershey is represented by First Liberty Institute.

# # #