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Qualified Immunity Abolition Act of 2026
To amend the Revised Statutes to remove the defense of qualified immunity in the case of any action under section 1979, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill removes the qualified immunity defense for federal, state, and local law enforcement officers in civil rights lawsuits. Qualified immunity currently protects officers from liability if they violate rights that were not clearly established at the time. The bill eliminates this defense, making officers potentially liable even if they acted in good faith or believed their conduct was lawful. The bill also extends these provisions to federal law enforcement officers acting under federal authority.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
1 cosponsor
Actions (2)
- Jan 13, 2026 Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. · senate
- Jan 13, 2026 Introduced in Senate
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
January 13, 2026
Mr. Markey introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To amend the Revised Statutes to remove the defense of qualified immunity in the case of any action under section 1979, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Qualified Immunity Abolition Act of 2026”.
SEC. 2. REMOVAL OF QUALIFIED IMMUNITY.
Section 1979 of the Revised Statutes (42 U.S.C. 1983) is amended—
(1) by inserting “(a)” before “Every person”; and
(2) by adding at the end the following:
“(b) It shall not be a defense to any action brought against a Federal, State, or local law enforcement officer that is pending on, or filed after, the date of enactment of this subsection that, at the time of the deprivation—
“(1) the defendant was acting in good faith;
“(2) the defendant believed, reasonably or otherwise, that his or her conduct was lawful;
“(3) the rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws were not clearly established; or
“(4) the state of the law was such that the defendant could not reasonably have been expected to know whether his or her conduct was lawful.”.
SEC. 3. CIVIL ACTION AGAINST FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS ACTING UNDER FEDERAL AUTHORITY.
Subsection (a) of section 1979 of the Revised Statutes (42 U.S.C. 1983), as so designated by section 4 of this Act, is amended by inserting “and every Federal law enforcement officer who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage of the United States,” before “subjects”. <all>
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