Qualified Immunity is a defense that protects law enforcement officers from civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.

• A. Not applicable
• B. True
• C. Only for state actors
• D. False

Answer: (B)

Qualified immunity is about whether the law protecting rights is clearly established. It shields law enforcement officers from civil damages unless their conduct violated a constitutional or statutory right that a reasonable officer would have known about. The key idea is that liability depends on the clarity of the law at the time, not on the officer’s personal knowledge or intent. If the right in question was clearly established, a reasonable officer would have known their conduct was unlawful, so the immunity does not apply. If it wasn’t clearly established, the officer remains protected from liability.

This standard is objective and applies to government officials broadly, not only state actors. That’s why the statement is true: the defense protects officers unless the rights involved were clearly established in a way a reasonable person would have known.