Dear Supreme Court justices, it's time to end judge-invented qualified immunity
Good morning! September came and went so quickly. But it is officially Halloween-time, so watch some scary movies to distract yourself from how scary reality is. Oh, and read today's columns.
Supreme Court justices, time to end judge-invented qualified immunity
By The Editorial Board
Even before bipartisan Senate negotiations on advancing the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act recently broke down after months of negotiations, a key reform of police accountability was off the table: qualified immunity.
The judge-invented notion protects police officers from civil suits even if they violate someone's constitutional rights, unless those rights have been upheld by the relevant federal appeals court in a similar case.
Reform of qualified immunity is key to holding police officers responsible for misdeeds on the job. Cops can kill, rape and steal and never face accountability in civil court as long as the Supreme Court continues to enforce this misguided legal doctrine.
Today's Editorial Cartoon
Breastfeeding is hard enough. Try learning during a pandemic.
By Allison Yarrow
After giving birth in Brooklyn in 2015, before I had even eaten, I phoned the hospital lactation consultant to beg for help feeding my daughter. She never called back or came, so I attended her weekly class. It consisted of bedraggled women wheeling their infants into a converted closet to watch a video. In it, a woman stroked her breast a couple of times and milk gushed out like Niagara Falls. Meanwhile, the only fluids exiting my body were the tears drenching my face. I left the hospital knowing zilch about breastfeeding, feeling defeated before I began.
I wish my experience were an outlier. But many women’s attempts to breastfeed start similarly – utter cluelessness receding into deep shame. Just because breastfeeding is “natural” doesn’t make it easy. I surveyed more than 1,300 moms for a book I’m writing about control in childbirth, and hundreds of them stressed how difficult and bewildering breastfeeding was. Some called it the single hardest part of becoming a mom.
Breastfeeding is, counterintuitively, both pedestalled and undervalued in our culture. Support is so scarce that while most people want to breastfeed, more than half don’t meet their own goals. Only a quarter of infants are exclusively breastfed for the first six months.
How do we care for ourselves in a pandemic?
By Connie Schultz
This is a way we can take care of ourselves as COVID-19’s delta variant surges and hospitals fill, again. We don’t have to give farewell speeches to those who have disappointed us one time too many. We don’t have to have to declare war on those who parade their disregard for the well-being of others. No ultimatums, no duels to the end.
Instead, we can embrace the graceful exit. We can back out of the room and let the door quietly close.
I have a tip I want to share with you. It’s about breathing.
Other columns to read
- What happened to 'Honest Joe'? Biden's promises are turning into lies.
- An unearthly call is now silent, but we can still save our wildlife from extinction
- Biden, Democrats must be like Republicans to tackle income inequality
- Afghanistan journalist escapes Taliban with help of Americans, Ukraine
This newsletter was compiled by Jaden Amos.