Qualified Immunity Abolition Act of 2026

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3625 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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119th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3625

   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.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   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''.
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