Origin 1967, Pierson v. Ray; modern objective test set in 1982, Harlow v. Fitzgerald.
Qualified immunity is a doctrine of United States law that shields government officials performing discretionary functions from civil liability for money damages, unless the plaintiff shows the official violated a clearly established statutory or constitutional right of which a reasonable official would have known. The Supreme Court first recognized a version of the doctrine in Pierson v. Ray (1967) and set out its modern objective test in Harlow v. Fitzgerald (1982); the doctrine has drawn sustained judicial and academic criticism over its statutory foundation, including a concurrence from Justice Clarence Thomas in Ziglar v. Abbasi (2017) questioning its basis. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Origin Period1967, Pierson v. Ray; modern objective test set in 1982, Harlow v. Fitzgerald. 1 Core PrincipleGovernment officials performing discretionary functions generally are shielded from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known. 1 Origin Period
Origin Period (category)20th Century (1900-1999) 1 Classification
Doctrine Category Connections
Associated With
In Area Of Law
Entity-backed identity for the doctrine category value this doctrine already carries as an enum fact, resolved to a doctrine entity by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The enum fact itself stays on the entity unchanged.
In Legal System
Source Qualified Immunity (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Qualified Immunity (Wikipedia)
Harlow v. Fitzgerald standard section
government officials performing discretionary functions generally are shielded from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.
- a legal doctrine in United States law that grants government officials immunity from prosecution or lawsuits unless the official violated civil or constitutional rights
- In Legal System: Law of the United States
View the SourceQualified Immunity (Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School)
Definition section, tracing origin to Harlow v Fitzgerald
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