I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 503
To amend the Revised Statutes to codify the defense of qualified immunity
in the case of any action under section 1979, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY16, 2025
Ms. F
OXX(for herself and Mr. VANORDEN) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To amend the Revised Statutes to codify the defense of
qualified immunity in the case of any action under sec-
tion 1979, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Qualified Immunity 4
Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6
Congress finds the following: 7
(1) Qualified immunity is intended for all but 8
the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly vio-9
late the law and is meant to give government offi-10
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cials breathing room to make reasonable mistakes of 1
fact and law. 2
(2) The Supreme Court has observed that 3
qualified immunity balances two important interests, 4
the need to hold law enforcement officers account-5
able when they exercise power irresponsibly and the 6
need to shield officers from harassment, distraction, 7
and liability when they perform their duties reason-8
ably. 9
SEC. 3. CODIFICATION OF QUALIFIED IMMUNITY. 10
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 1979 of the Revised Stat-11
utes (42 U.S.C. 1983) is amended— 12
(1) by inserting ‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL—’’ before 13
‘‘Every person’’; and 14
(2) by adding at the end the following new sub-15
section: 16
‘‘(b) A
PPLICABILITY TOLAWENFORCEMENT OFFI-17
CERS.— 18
‘‘(1) A law enforcement officer subject to an ac-19
tion under this section in their individual capacity 20
shall not be found liable if such law enforcement of-21
ficer establishes that— 22
‘‘(A) the right, privilege, or immunity se-23
cured by the Constitution or Federal law was 24
not clearly established at the time of their dep-25
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rivation by the law enforcement officer, or that 1
at this time, the state of the law was not suffi-2
ciently clear that every reasonable law enforce-3
ment officer would have understood that the 4
conduct alleged constituted a violation of the 5
Constitution or Federal law; or 6
‘‘(B) a court of competent jurisdiction had 7
issued a final decision on the merits holding, 8
without reversal, vacatur, or preemption, that 9
the specific conduct alleged to be unlawful was 10
consistent with the Constitution and Federal 11
laws. 12
‘‘(2) A law enforcement agency or unit of local 13
government who employed a law enforcement officer 14
subject to an action under subsection (a), shall not 15
be liable for such action if the law enforcement offi-16
cer is found not liable under paragraph (1) and was 17
acting within the scope of their employment. 18
‘‘(c) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 19
‘‘(1) L
AW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER .—The term 20
‘law enforcement officer’ means any Federal, State, 21
Tribal, or local official who is authorized by law to 22
engage in or supervise the prevention, detection, in-23
vestigation, or the incarceration of any person for 24
any violation of law, and has the statutory powers 25
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of arrest or apprehension, including police officers 1
and other agents of a law enforcement agency. 2
‘‘(2) L
AW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY .—The term 3
‘law enforcement agency’ means any Federal, State, 4
Tribal, or local public agency engaged in supervision, 5
prevention, detection, investigation, or the incarcer-6
ation of any person for any violation of law, and has 7
the statutory powers of arrest or apprehension.’’. 8
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made 9
under subsection (a) shall take effect on the date that is 10
180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act. 11
Æ
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