The Qualified Immunity Abolition Act of 2026 eliminates qualified immunity, a legal defense that currently protects law enforcement officers from civil lawsuits. Under existing law, officers can avoid liability if they were acting in good faith or if the rights they violated were not "clearly established" at the time. This bill removes those protections, allowing people to sue federal, state, and local law enforcement officers for constitutional violations regardless of whether the officers believed their conduct was lawful or whether legal precedent clearly prohibited it. The bill applies to all cases pending or filed after its enactment and extends the same liability standards to federal law enforcement officers. The legislation was introduced in January 2026 but does not specify funding amounts or implementation timelines, as it primarily restructures existing civil rights law rather than creating new programs.
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