Trials & Litigation
Law students demand loophole shielding federal officers from civil suits should be closed
U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino walks through a Target store Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Gray/The Associated Press)
A coalition of law students, law student organizations and legal academics from 115 law schools has collected more than 2,765 signatures demanding that the U.S. Congress pass the Federal Officer Accountability Act.
According to the Nation, the group was launched by students at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law. They were inspired by an opinion piece in the New York Times written by Erwin Chemerinsky, the law school’s dean and an ABA Journal contributor, and Burt Neuborne, a professor emeritus at the New York University School of Law.
Chemerinsky and Neuborne discussed how Congress must close a loophole in the federal law allows civil lawsuits against federal officers, such as those from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement involved in recent killings of residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota.
Currently, those families have essentially no civil remedy against the individual officers, according to Above the Law, and even state courts are limited because federal agents can automatically remove to federal court.
Section 1983 of the Civil Rights Act has allowed people to sue state and local officers for constitutional violations since 1871, and the students’ proposed text for the Federal Officer Accountability Act mirrors its language, extending it to those acting under the authority of federal law, according to Above the Law.
Additionally, the proposal includes that officers found to have used excessive force cannot be shielded by qualified immunity.
Write a letter to the editor, share a story tip or update, or report an error.
