How Reuters analysed court data on qualified immunity

(Reuters) - Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has repeatedly criticized her fellow justices for creating, as she put it in a 2018 dissent, an “absolute shield” for police officers accused of excessive force. So Reuters reporters decided to test her words.

Sotomayor isn’t alone in faulting the court for making it too easy for cops accused of violating the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which protects the public from unreasonable search and seizure. Groups from across the political spectrum have set their sights on the obscure legal doctrine known as qualified immunity, created half a century ago to shield police and other government employees from legal liability for actions they take on the job.