The next big Supreme Court shift might not be abortion or guns

Qualified immunity, a doctrine the Supreme Court created in 1967, bewilders ordinary citizens who run headlong into it after government officials trample their constitutional rights. In plain English, the doctrine often blocks lawsuits against officials unless a prior court decision “clearly established” that the specific conduct at issue violated the Constitution. That standard leaves many victims without a remedy and lets many constitutional wrongs go unanswered. That is not right. The Constitution exists to protect individual rights, not to insulate officials who violate them from accountability. Recent years have also supplied fresh reasons to question the doctrine’s scope. Abuses tied...