Federal Officials Should Be Accountable for Their Wrongdoing

American government officials enjoy an extraordinary amount of immunity when it comes to liability for wrongdoing. If, for example, a Bureau of Land Management employee trespasses onto private property and harasses the property owner, the officer probably can’t be sued in federal court. Likewise, if a prison official denies a prisoner adequate medical care, he too stands little chance of being held accountable in federal court.

Federal officials’ special status results not from federal statutes but from common law; it is the nation’s judges who have, over time, made it harder for victims of government wrongdoing to hold the government accountable, rather than easier. Judges have fashioned sweeping doctrines of immunity that insulate federal and state officials from facing any liability. Under these doctrines, victims of government wrongdoing cannot recover damages from government officials unless they can point to some prior case that has