[caption id="attachment_25495" align="alignnone" width="340"] SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS - DECEMBER 11, 2018: Two police officers stand in the plaza in front of The Alamo in San Antonio, Texas. (Photo by Robert Alexander/Getty Images)[/caption]
Democratic presidential candidate Julián Castro is calling on lawmakers to re-envision policing in this country. Specifically, Castro has proposed restricting the judge-made doctrine of “qualified immunity,” a defense public officials like police officers can invoke in civil rights lawsuits brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983(“Section 1983”). Section 1983 allows people to sue for damages when state officials violate their Constitutional or other federal rights. The text of the statute reads, in part:
[caption id="attachment_25496" align="alignnone" width="370"] RIO GRANDE CITY, TX - DECEMBER 07: A one-year-old from El Salvador clings to his mother after she turned themselves in to Border Patrol agents on December 7, 2015 near Rio Grande City, Texas. They had just illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border into Texas. The mother said she brought her son on the 24-day journey from El Salvador to escape violence in the Central American country. The number of migrant families and unaccompanied minors has again surged in recent months, even as the total number of illegal crossings nationwide has gone down over the previous year. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)[/caption]