Supreme Court Cases Challenge Qualified Immunity, Impacting Constitutional Tort Law
The Supreme Court cases of Iqbal and al-Kidd suggest that plaintiffs must prove why qualified immunity doesn't apply in their complaints. This goes against previous laws where plaintiffs didn't have to anticipate defenses. The Court is torn between dismissing cases early to protect officials and not imposing stricter pleading rules. The solution could be to make claims subject to qualified immunity less important, so plaintiffs have to prove their case more clearly.