BILL NUMBER: S176
SPONSOR: JACKSON
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the civil rights law, in relation to providing a civil
action for deprivation of rights
 
PURPOSE:
The purpose of this legislation is to end the defense of qualified immu-
nity for public officials when they deprive the rights of New Yorkers as
well as to provide a state cause of action that may be brought by an
injured individual and/or the Attorney General.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 adds a new section 79-R of the Civil Rights Law to end the
defense of qualified immunity for certain defendants acting under color
of law. This section also provides a state cause of action for the
deprivation of rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the federal
or state Constitution or laws. The court shall award reasonable attorney
fees and costs to the prevailing plaintiff, and may award reasonable
costs and attorney fees for a prevailing defendant but only for defend-
ing any claims the court finds frivolous. Additionally, the Attorney
General may bring a civil action for relief on behalf of the state and
the injured party but an action brought by the Attorney General does not
foreclose an injured party from bringing an action. If the Attorney
General prevails, the court shall order any award of damages to the
injured party. Qualified immunity or a defendant's good faith but erro-
neous belief in the lawfulness of their conduct shall not be a defense.
A civil action under this section must commence within three years of
the cause of action. Lastly, a public entity shall indemnify its public
employees for any liability incurred by the employee and for any judg-
ment entered against the employee for claims arising and er this
section. A "public entity" is the state, any county, city und county,
municipality, and every other political subdivision of the state; and
any private entity that engages in state action. Immunity for
corrections officers under Subdivision 1 of Section 24 of the Correction
Law shall not apply to actions brought pursuant to this section. Actions
brought pursuant to this section may be brought in any court of compe-
tent jurisdiction.
Section 2 is the severability clause.
Section 3 is the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
For more than five decades, public officials have had extraordinary
leeway in how they performed their jobs. As we see across America today,
qualified immunity has far too often given the public officials license
to violate a person's civil rights without any form of accountability,
even during the most routine encounters.
Qualified immunity was granted to law enforcement by the U.S. Supreme
Court and then further strengthened. (1) As New York State is a leader
in legal reform, we must continue this progress as our streets have been
filled with massive protests against unaccountable state power. It is
time to untangle the web of misconduct that has been shielded by the
extraordinary protection granted by qualified immunity.
In a New York Times article, a report was cited by the Mapping Police
Violence organization.(2) Based on their study of data, "of the 1,147
people killed by the police in 2017, officers were charged with a crime
in 13 of those cases, or about one percent." This startling statistic,
for example, points to the protection that qualified immunity has given
law enforcement even in the most suspect of cases where officers have
acted with impunity.
We must be part of the national movement to stop unaccountable actions
by public officials when they violate our constitutional rights. We have
the opportunity to join other states that have passed laws to hold
public officials accountable for when they violate a person's constitu-
tional rights.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2023-2024: S182A - Referred to Codes/ A710-A - Referred to Judiciary
2021-2022: S.1991 - Referred to Investigations and Government
Operations/A.4331 - Referred to Judiciary
2019-2020: S.8668-B - Amend and recommit to Rules/A.10978 - Referred to
Governmental Operations
 
STATE AND LOCAL FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
To be determined.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
1 Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. (1982); Malley v. Briggs, 457 U.S. 335
(1986); Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635 (1987); Saucier v. Katz,
533 U.S. 194 (2001); Pearson v. Callahan, 555 U.S. 223 (2009); Safford
v. Redding, 557 U.S. 364 (2009).
2 Halley Fuchs, Qualified Immunity Protection for Police Emerges as
Flash Point Amid Protests, N.Y. Times, July 20, 2020,
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/23/ us/polilics/qualified-immunity.html.