The court, in an unsigned opinion, shielded a Vermont police officer from a claim that he used excessive force on a protester during a 2015 sit-in at the state’s capitol.
Federal agents are usually immune from lawsuits in ways local and state officials aren't, but the Trump administration's immigration policies are prompting states to test the gap with novel strategies to hold them accountable. Why it matters: The Trump administration has suggested federal agents possess "absolute immunity " from state-led prosecutions, something which sparked outrage following the deaths of two Minneapolis residents. - "For most of American history, there were already paths to suing federal officials," Harrison Stark, of the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School, tells Axios. - A 1971 Supreme Court decision sharply limited individuals' ability to sue federal agents, and since…