Good morning and welcome to Supreme Court Brief and the week after the end of a momentous court term! Of course, the term doesn't end officially until the chief justice gavels it closed on the first Monday in October, but clearly the end of last week brought sighs of relief on many fronts. While the court is quiet for now, we catch up on the defeat, thus far, of a strong effort to get the justices rein in the doctrine of qualified immunity. The week's end also brought an invitation to a former Roberts clerk to brief and argue a habeas case next term. And scroll down for some thoughts on how new Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson can make a difference in a six-justice conservative majority.

Thanks for reading. We welcome feedback and tips. Contact Marcia Coyle at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @MarciaCoyle. 

The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., October 1, 2021. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

Justices Reject Qualified Immunity Reform

Back in December, Hogan Lovells partner Cate Stetson and local counsel Dallas' Dean Malone believed they had put before the justices an excellent 1-2 punch on the problems with qualified immunity, the doctrine protecting government officials from individual liability in lawsuits alleging they violated someone's civil rights.

The facts in the two petitions were horrific. In Ramirez v. Guadarrama, police officers, knowing what would happen, tased a man to prevent him from setting himself on fire after dousing himself in gasoline. The man died and the resulting fire burned down his home. In Cope v. Cogdill, in violation of several state jail guidelines, an officer stood and watched a known-suicidal pretrial detainee hang himself with the 30-inch cord of the telephone left on the wall of his isolation cell.